Marty’s photo of the day #4487: Yesterday, Deb and I drove to the northern end of Bonaire for a second visit of Washington-Slagbaai National Park. At midday, we found an out-of-the-way picnic table and enjoyed a delightful lunch, accompanied by thirty or so blauw-blauw (six-inch-long whiptail lizards with bright blue tails). The blauw-blauw obviously knew what picnics were all about. When a piece of lettuce fell from my sandwich, they all converged on it as if they were in a scene from the movie Jurassic Park. Reptiles are kind of my thing, yet here on Bonaire is the first time I’ve witnessed them begging for food.
Earlier in our trip, an iguana tried to climb right up Deb’s leg (leaving nasty scratches) for a taste of her sandwich. With the blauw-blauw, I set aside my usual “do not feed indigenous animals” creed and enjoyed their antics while sharing with them the rest of the lettuce from my sandwich. Then, while I was sitting on the picnic table bench, leaning over to photograph a group of blauw-blauws, an especially brave one climbed right up my back and bit my ear! The blauw-blauw wasn’t being aggressive. I mean, how would it know an ear wasn’t food unless it gave it a taste? My ear is fine. The bite startled me more than anything.