15 October 2012

Flora and Fauna of Virgin Gorda

Virgin Gorda is a small island in terms of both size and population (8 square miles, fewer than 4,000 people), but like most tropical destinations, it has a diverse selection of flora and fauna. Here's a tiny sampling of what we delighted in last week. Alas, my underwater digital camera is no longer seaworthy and I didn't replace it before our trip, so these are all land based. In no particular order...

You got your beach (and boardwalk) fowl:




Running goats & climbing goats:




Wilbur and his friends:

I just love this one!
Which means this one must be Charlotte:
At home we call this an orange garden spider. Don't know what it's called on VG.
The mighty pelican (don't you always think of Ogden Nash?):

And a tiny crab--look closely:

Here are some flower shots by day:
I think this was a flamboyant.

Oleander

Firecrackers
One evening near twilight I went outside and randomly shot some flowers on a micro setting with flash.   I was surprised by what the results were:

Tiny bougainvillea blooming out of the rocks
Blue Wreath 
Ixora
This hibiscus just might be my favorite shot
We also saw frigates, hummingbirds, grackles, and bananaquits flying around the villa but weren't able to snap photos of them all. And there were dozens, if not hundreds of flowers that I didn't shoot, including the wonderfully fragrant jasmine blooming outside our door at Euphoria that laced the air with its delicate perfume. Melanie shot lots of lizards and a few skinks but I somehow came up empty-handed where those are concerned. 

One of things I love best about this island is the lack of demarcation between indoor and outdoor, between humans and animals--it's just all there in a wild jumble for the [picture] taking. 

P. S. Happy birthday, sweetheart!  I scheduled this post at 10:15 on 10/15 in your honor.

8 comments:

  1. So many chickens and pigs!

    Ah, and happy birthday to your husband. :D Hope it's been truly awesome there.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Alas, I think the free range pigs are the ones soon to be served at Hog Heaven. And the goats--so many goats! But it's fun seeing so many free-range animals. As an equal opportunity omnivore, I can at least be satisfied that unlike the factory farms of the US, these animals raised for food lead good lives until that time.

      Delete
  2. Wishing your DH a wonderful birthday as well.....loved every second of the trip!!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Having enjoyed so many of your reports from Anguilla (and fab reading recommendations) I am so happy to catch up with you on Virgin Gorda. We made an all too brief stop 3 years ago when we took a week out of our month holiday in Anguilla and sailed the BVIs in a crewed catamaran. I look forward to each installment - London is wet and cold so a bit of tropical sunshine via your blog is perfect! Thanks and happy birthday to your sweetheart! Jan

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jan, I'm a little green with envy. First, that you get a month-long vacation in Anguilla, and second that you spent one week of it aboard a crewed cat. I've always wanted to do that! Thanks for reading.

      Delete
  4. Beautiful! What lovely photos. I'm sure everything was even more gorgeous in real life.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's true--every view looked like it had been photoshopped.

      Delete

Please, sir, may I have some more? (Comments, that is!)