Wildlife.

I am spending part of the winter in Boca Raton, Florida, in a country club community with hundreds of homes and apartment buildings. The surrounding area is crisscrossed by major highways and filled with large malls and shopping centers. And yet the crows and ducks wake me up in the morning and I see iguanas by the pond outside my terrace or in the tree near my window.

I had no idea until I came here that iguanas climb trees, and then I learned that when it gets cold, they fall out of them. Iguanas are cold blooded. When the temperature drops, they become immobile, lose their grip and fall. I am used to articles about bears in the trees in Berkshire neighborhoods, warning people that as cute as they are, they’re dangerous. In Florida there are alerts for falling iguanas!

When they’re not in the trees they are basking in the sun.  I’ve been told that iguanas are more afraid of me than I am of them, but I highly doubt that. I’m a city girl at heart and view any lizard as a potential Godzilla. When I come upon one lying on the path, I turn around. I’m no expert, but yesterday I think the iguanas were mating; one was on top of the other.

Each morning I walk I see most of the other walkers wearing headphones or air pods or simply talking on their phones. They are all focused on an electronic device. I carry my phone in case I want to take a picture but prefer to listen to the sounds around me. Are the crows’ loud caws alerting the others to danger, professing their readiness to mate, or just staking out their territory? Are the ducks quacking with or at each other when they come in for a “splash landing?”  

There is rarely a quiet moment here, but I have come to love nature’s noises.