Hurricane Wilma came and went so fast through here that the damage was minimal. Loads of palm fronds blocking minor roads and very few streetlights working, but everything else more or less functioning normally.
On the first evening we had the young moon and Venus together in the sky, with Mercury occasionally showing throught the clouds low to the West. The lack of light from the town was a real bonus when walking back down the beach at night.
| Dyalog the Lizard. Actually, Jonathan took this one, as I was on the Skype at the time. I suspect he saw his reflection in the plate-glass door and was displaying to it! |  |
| Graculus the Great Green Bird (Phalacrocorax auritus). One for Noggin the Nog fans. Probably a young 2-crested cormorant as nothing else this shape is common around here. |  |
| White Ibis (Eudocimus albus) passing over. Identified after the event from the photo! Only seen once, unfortunately. |  |
| Lizard on rock. I guess the same lizard, looking for crumbs. We got one of the nice beach-front rooms again this year, so plenty of opportunity to observe these. |  |
| Pelican (Pelicanus oxydentalis) out to dry. Natural-born comic, this one. |  |
| Pelican vulning itself. Very heraldic - for some reason this posture is common on coats of arms. |  |
| Ruddy Turnstone (Arenaria interpres). Loads of these, but damned hard to catch up with. |  |
| Small Blue Heron (Egretta caerulea). Again this only showed up once, early in the morning. |  |
| Snowy Egret (Egretta thula). Far too many pictures of egrets - this is probably the most appealing if not the most typical. |  |
| Solitary Sandpiper (Tringa solitaria). Solitary my foot! Hard to avoid treading on them. |  |
| Sparrow (Passer domesticus). Wow! |  |
| Willet (Catoptrophorus semipalmatus). Very handsome in flight with clear zigzag wingbars. Quite a few of these around, mostly in mixed groups with the Sandpipers. |  |
Regrets - no decent pictures of the terns (mixed groups of Little and Common) and failed completely to get a shot of a pelican fishing. Apart from that, I think the above are pretty typical of what you get on the beach (or outside your hotel room) in the morning.