Oh, I love it when I get animal visitors to the yard! This Gopher Tortoise is an especially welcome friend. Now, I didn't flip it over to see if it was a him or a her, so I'll just call this one a "him".
He didn't really move much, so I only photographed the one pose, but here he is a little bit closer. If you ever come across one of these, please don't try to put it toward water. These are land tortoises and they live in the scrubby, dry areas like the pine flatwoods. Anyway, they rarely drink water, getting their water needs from plants. I sometimes see them on the road somewhere and I do try to put them on the other side of the road in the direction they were heading. And with the crazy traffic in south Florida, that is a considerable feat! So, please - you, know - be careful out there!
This is a shot of the Gopher Tortoise that visited my yard where we used to live. He was eating lunch, but looked like he stuck his tongue out at me!
While I was getting the Tortoise pics out of my reptile file, I came across this sweet little anole and just thought I'd add it here, since this is a short post. He was so itty, bitty hopping through the grass. I love his "smile"! And while I'm not happy that he's one of the invasive brown ones, I still have to smile at his expression.
Found this cute little ladybug visitor on one of the red salvias. I always welcome these beneficial friends to the yard.
I hope you're out enjoying this glorious spring weather!
Love, Light and Peace ☮
