Thought it was about time I made a list of all the native flora and fauna I have seen while out and about (introduced a la Bridget Jones with pertinent facts)
- Giant swallowtail butterflies – the kind and size we only get in butterfly houses in the UK
- Fireflies – kinda magical in a, they appear to think of my hi-viz cycling vest as a potential mate
- Cicadas – huge and shiny green, we frightened one of these out of hiding in the bike co-op by bursting an inner tube so I got to have a close up look as it buzzed around like a toy helicopter!
- Cicada killers – wasps the size of your thumb who fortunately are very mellow (except when it comes to cicadas of course!)
- Black widow spider – *shudders* Enough said.
- Opossum – more often actually dead than playing possum, unfortunately but I did glimpse a live one scurrying off into the woods.
- Racoons – not as cute as the cartoons would have you believe, often rabid and also live in roofspaces sometimes
- Pelicans – graceful incumbents of the Atlantic coast beaches, most often viewed catching the air currents close to the ocean surface
- Southern copperhead snake – hourglass markings and an almost translucent red head, apparently their instinct to freeze when humans approach means they are commonly trodden on resulting in a nasty (but not lethal) bite.
- Sugar ants – teensy ants came from nowhere and covered an empty plate in my room in minutes
- Golden silk spider – huuuuge female spider with teensy male counterpart, observed doing their thing in South Carolina
What do we learn from this – NC does big bugs well (and little ones too if the bites on my legs are to be believed!)