Mystery solved

Everybody had the right idea. Jena was first to guess grasshopper. Sharp eyes, KellyRae, to spot the web. The spider caught this one under a banana leaf and feasted for several days before they both disappeared.

Monday Morning Mystery

Florida Factoid Friday

Since more than 85% of scrub has disappeared to development since WW11, Florida scrub ecosystem supports the highest concentration of rare and endangered plants in the US.

Mystery solved

Y'all were wise to go along with FC's guess. We can't hardly slip anything past him, can we? 8-]

I do wish I had a better picture for y'all, but I didn't wanna irritate Big Momma at an inopportune moment. I understand the substance they 'spit' can be excrutiatingly painful. If you look closely you'll see 'Little Daddy' procreating.

Monday Morning Mystery

Florida Factoid Friday

About a century and a half before there was a San Francisco in California, a San Francisco mission existed in northern Florida. San Antonio, San Diego, Santa Fe – all were missions that once served Florida Indians.

Mystery solved

FC is just too good at this! Yes, it is, indeed, a spider lily. If I had more gumption, I'd go dig up my wildflower guide to see what kind. I pulled this picture out of my old files, so I'm not even sure exactly where I found it. 8-}

Monday Morning Mystery

Florida Factoid Friday

The last battle of the American Revolution took place on 10 March 1783 - nearly a year and a half after Cornwallis's surrender at Yorktown - about 90 miles off the coast of Cape Canaveral.

The 1986 FL Legislature officially recognized this naval skirmish as the 'Battle Off Florida'.

Read more here - scroll about 3/4-way down the page to topic 'The Final Fight'.

Mystery solved

KellyRae is right. It's a Black Skimmer. I'm always so tickled to see these birds. They have so much character.

These were part of a large flock hanging out with gulls, terns and other water-loving birds at Fort Island Trail Park in Crystal River. DS and I were hunting for a Roseate Spoonbill spotted off Follow That Dream Parkway in Yankeetown. Failing that mission, we knew we'd see something interesting at Fort Island. It was perfect till the kids ran through the flock and the yellowflies found me. The kids, eventually, go away; yellowflies never give up. {0,0}

Monday Morning Mystery

Florida Factoid Friday

New Smyrna Beach is known as the world's safest bathing beach

because of offshore reefs protecting the waters from riptides.

It is also the shark bite capital of the world.

Blacktip & Spinner sharks off NSB
Photo courtesy surftherenow.com

Mystery solved

I had a feeling FC would correctly surmise that these were horseshoe crabs. Check out his wondermous recent post about these awesome critters. I came across a baby the other day, but had left my camera in the car to play in the surf. Never mind, FC has lots of AbFab baby captures. 8-}