Wonders of Nature

Be sure to check back each week as this page will have a new
Featured Creature weekly, with new photos, fun and information to get you
all involved in the wonders of nature.

The answer to each week's Critter Quiz becomes the Featured Creature the following week.

Click HERE - the answer is there waiting for you!

If you have photos that you would like to submit for consideration as the Featured Creature
please email Wonders of Nature

I am an arachnid. I am widespread throughout the United States, making
my home in areas of tall grass. My species is actually found in many places
around the world. I am very colorful and beautiful - pale yellow with silver
hairs and an abdomen striped in silver, yellow, and black. Even my legs are
spotted. I have eight legs, just like all arachnids, but sometimes I hold my
legs together in pairs and it looks like I have only four. I am in a family
known as "orbweavers" - we get this name because of the huge orb webs
we weave to catch our prey. My web often has a very distinctive zig-zag
pattern running down the middle. Who am I?

Matt took these pictures on
St. Pete Beach.

Laughing Gulls are found
on the Atlantic and Gulf
Coasts of the United
States. They are a common
site in our own state of
Florida but only near the
coast, they rarely come
inland. They always feed
near the sea since their diet
is made up of fish and

beach. If you want to see a
Laughing Gull for yourself
you need to head for a day
at the beach. Laughing
Gulls are bold and if you
are quiet and still it is often
possible for you to get
quite close to one of these
beautiful birds before it
flies away. The scientific
name for the Laughing Gull
is Leucophaeus atricilla.

other marine animals. Laughing Gulls are not really good fishermen, but they
are very good thieves and can often be seen stealing the fish out of a pelican's
bill! They are a useful scavenger, cleaning up garbage and dead fish from the

· Most gulls are ground nesting carnivores, which will take live food, such
as fish and crabs, or scavenge opportunistically.

· Gulls are smart, curious and resourceful, some species
will drop mollusks and crabs onto rocks to break the
shells open, and others have even learned how to use
tools!

· Many gull colonies work together mobbing and
would-be predators and other intruders to drive
them away.

· The Herring Gull drinks fresh water when
it is available. However, if none is around,
it will drink seawater. Special glands over
its eyes allow it to excrete the salt. The
salty excretion can be seen dripping out
of the gull's nostrils and off the end of its bill.

· Many species of gulls are kleptoparasitic - this is the scientific way for
saying that they steal prey away from other animals.