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Black spiny-tailed iguana as photographed in El Salvador You'd never know it, looking at one of these lizards as it lazes about in its habitat, but it holds the Guinness Book of World Records as being the fastest lizard species on Earth.  Not only are they fast, they are also exceptionally good climbers and can crawl over rocks, branches, and up trees with relative ease.   They are large lizards, up to four feet in length, and have sharp claws and a strong tail.  If provoked, they will whip their tail towards an aggressor, claw at them, and even bite.  They are primarily vegetarians but will take invertebrates, small vertebrates, and eggs if available.   The females are slightly smaller than males and use their sharp claws to dig burrows for eggs.  She may lay up to 25 eggs and protect them from other females or potential predators.  The young are only a few inches long and dig their way out of their burrow, which may be half a meter deep....

Three narrow stingless bees approach the entrance to their hive.  El Salvador. One of the great reasons to travel is to see things, amazing things, things that are different from what you normally experience on a day-to-day basis.  And although I enjoy places, people, culture, and structures, what I get a real kick out of is wildlife.  Vertebrates, invertebrates, air, land, ocean, fresh water - it all presents an opportunity to discover life in a form I have not known. Such was my discovery of a peculiar sight - bright yellow insects buzzing around the base of a tree.  Hundreds of them.  I asked a local gentleman what they were; he called them chumelos .  A type of social bee, but unlike anything I had seen before.  I didn't have my macro equipment with me, so the best I could do was to zoom in with my telephoto from a distance and see what I got.   Later, I found out that they are a small, stingless bee that makes honey.  There was a tu...

A many-banded daggerwing butterfly taking salts and water from a damp spot on concrete. I photographed this butterfly while visiting the tiny town of Yelapa along Mexico's western coast.  What struck me right away was the butterfly's size and the pair of swallowtail-like extensions on the hind wings.  It was also very unusual in that it had distinct stripes on both the dorsal and ventral sides of the wings, and a hexad of dots at the front wings' vertex.  It was unlike any butterfly I had seen before. The many-banded daggerwing caterpillar feeds on plants related to figs, which partly explains why they don't occur very far north.  The odd adults show up in mid-US latitudes, but are more accidental than born and bred there.  They are mostly found in tropical areas around Mexico, southern Texas, and Central America. It was very hot out, and the butterfly was extending its proboscis and taking moisture and salts from the damp concrete.  We were walking up to t...

A great kiskadee flycatcher is looking to "hawk" a falling water drop. This bird really impressed me.  I saw numerous individuals over the wide range of places we visited in our many ports of call in Middle America.  Their bold colours and vibrant songs caught my attention almost everywhere I went.  And their behaviour was fascinating.  They often perched on bare branches or posts that were free of surrounding clutter.  Then, when one spied a flying morsel, it would dart through the air to quickly capture its quarry, then return to its perch to continue hunting. I was watching one individual that was hawking water drops.  A drop would form at the end of a branch and then fall.  From its perch, it would fly towards the falling drop, anticipating where it would be when it arrived.  And then, in mid-air, it would snag the water drop in the same way it grasped insects, and return.  It happened again and again.  What a way to get a drink! Ano...

This is the best photo of a toucan I managed to get in all of Middle America. This bird is not the same one as Sam, the Fruit Loops toucan.  The colours are all wrong, and the bill's colours are not in concentric circles.  While not the largest toucan, the keel-billed toucan is a good size, reaching up to 22 inches in length; a third of that length is the bill.  It is found in southeastern Mexico, about half of Central America, and parts of Venezuela and Colombia.   As you probably know, the toucan is a prime consumer of fruit.  It is considered frugivorous, meaning it consumes a diet made mostly of fruit.  Figs happen to make up a large part of its diet, but it also eats bananas, papayas, berries, cherries, and some fruits you have never heard of.  However, its diet doesn't end there, as invertebrates and small vertebrates are also included.  The vertebrates include small snakes and lizards, but they will also take eggs, young chicks, and tr...

Top left and bottom:  recent photos.  Top right:  photo taken in 2005. There were two species of iguana I photographed while visiting Middle American countries on our cruise this year.  One was the very large green iguana, and the other was the black spiny-tailed iguana.  I photographed a spiny-tailed iguana 21 years ago while visiting Tulum in eastern Mexico.  I noticed there is quite a difference between the one I shot back then and the one I photographed recently.  I think they are the same species, although they are located over 700 km apart.  The species shows significant variation over its range. I watched both species move about their environments.  In the warm climate, they could move fast.  Although I never saw the black spiny-tailed iguana climb trees, they apparently are good at it.  It was the green iguana, though, that really caught my attention.  I couldn't believe how fast it went up a tree, across multiple branc...