It's been a good year for mailbox wildlife. Every time I come home I scan the area to see who's hanging out.
Ailanthus Webworm Moth (Required some hardcore googling!)
It's been a really good year for Mediterranean geckos around the house. Really, they are the only reptiles I see regularly. (Sure, I have seen a lot of red-eared sliders and soft-shelled turtles, but not anywhere near the house.)
I keep seeing one large-ish gecko near the mailbox after dark - she apparently likes LED lights too. I kept trying to get a picture of her, but geckos have little patience for blogger paparazzi. A few nights ago I stood on my tiptoes and peered over the mailbox lid to see if she was hiding back there. Sure enough - there she was. I knew that she'd run away if I lowered the lid to take a picture, so I slipped the camera lens over the lid and snapped the pic.
photo taken just seconds before the incident
My loving and patient wife was standing behind me all the while. She's come to understand that she's married to a dork who seeks nature in strange places. I showed her the pic and then went inside. She stayed behind. Very quickly thereafter, I heard a pair of screams from the front porch. The dogs and I rushed to the door to find a wide-eyed woman on the porch and a wide-eyed gecko scurrying toward the shrubbery.
My wife had wanted a better glimpse of the gecko and pulled the mailbox lid down. The gecko apparently watches too many of my Danny MacAskill videos through the front window and wanted to see if she could safely land on my wife's neck/shoulder region. She did. My wife brushed her away and the brave lizard leapt down onto the blouse. The second brush-away had the lizard leaping back to the wall and off into the night. I never did figure out where the screaming came from.
Never a dull moment around our house.
May you be surrounded by great nature - and may it not land you!
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