Taking Time to Smell the Flowers... and Talk to Geckos... and Spy on Exotic Waterfowl!

It's all about observing and contributing towards the preservation of wildlife!

If there is one thing I really enjoy about living in the tropics is the abundance of tropical flora. I don't care much about the abundance of fauna, but I do enjoy observing some of the stranger creatures I come across.

Tokay Gecko living under our patio roof. He has a Mrs. and a family of about 5.

Take this curious looking "Tokay" gecko living under our patio roof. He, and his Mrs., come out at dusk every evening and hang around watching me drink my evening glass of wine. No, not really. They are nocturnal creatures that feed off the many night-time insects that proliferate around our outdoor lighting. The male is territorial, attacking other Tokays and other intruders. The female lays clutches of one or two hard-shelled eggs and guards them until they hatch.

Current hatch in progress

The "Tokay" is considered to be quickly becoming a threatened species in the Philippines due to indiscriminate hunting for the medicinal trades in parts of Asia. We welcome this family as part of our family, although our three cats might be having round-table discussions on the matter. This gecko family knows though to stay high and well out of reach of our three would-be hunters.
Tokay Gecko - Wikipedia]

A species of Caladium I have yet to identify.

Yesterday I was browsing through some of our garden photos and we have a few flowering plants that I have yet to identify. I know some of them and identifying many of them is usually pretty easy. I cannot hardly ask a neighbor unless I want to learn another language, so I have turned to the internet for all my sourcing needs.

In my previous searches for names of flowers, I usually just scour the internet, but recently I came across a site that I've seen before, but have never really entered to find out more. The site is titled Project Noah and is an award-winning software platform designed to help people reconnect with the natural world. The project is backed by National Geographic and was begun as an experiment to mobilize citizen scientists and build a digital butterfly net. The goal - "To mobilize a new generation of nature explorers and helping people from around the world appreciate their local wildlife... harnessing the power and popularity of new mobile technologies to collect important ecological data and help preserve global biodiversity."

A Chinese Egret hanging out in the neighboring wetlands by our house.

The identity of the "Caladium" above has proven difficult to find but I'm hoping the Project Noah community will help me identify it. This site has also helped me to identify the different egrets that frequent a local fish pond. But Project Noah is more than that. The site is a powerful force for crowdsourcing ecological data collection and an important educational tool for wildlife awareness and preservation. Need to identify a bug? A tree or flower? Any organism? Anywhere in the world.

Through my blog "Retired in Samar" many people ask me about what kind of activities are there to keep a retiree busy in the Philippines. Aside from having plenty to do, my answer is now a simple one - "Connect with nature." Maybe even help out a little!

What better hobby can there be (besides Steemit!) than to be outdoors, taking pictures of wildlife, flowers, plants, or any living organism, and sharing it with the world. And there is no better place to share it than on Steemit.com! So, sign-up with Project Noah and share your findings... there and here. You can be the local expert!

Oh Look - A Pinapple! (But I already knew what it was.)

You know, come to think of it... I always thought Jacques-Yves Cousteau had a good gig!