What a great picture!

That's a riot, OO. Glad the little fellow survived. Imagine the tales he will have to tell, if can remember any of them!

OO that is hysterical! Not a bad place to be in my book! If only it were a pinot......

Having shown this photo to the Yankee, he says thinks gekkos have good taste:)
How cute!! I wonder if he was able to explain things to Mrs Gekko when he wandered in, stinking of wine :D

No hummingbirds..weep.

LOL...it was hard pouring that nice Chalk Hill out, let me tell you. You never can tell what a gecko will do in a glass of wine though. :D

So...if any of you come to a restaurant/hotel in FL, leave your glass out then come back to an unexpected visitor...don't say you weren't forewarned and please don't blame the hotel/restaurant. :D (JK) They are so cute. We still would love to know how he got in the glass without knocking it over.

OO, great picture! Thanks for posting it!! ((D))

Do you think we should petition fodors to add an icon for a wine glass? We sure could use one here...

OO, my daughter and son-in-law just came back from a trip to Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. They said they were on a boat somewhere in Thailand (I forget the details) and they were given some kind of rice wine to drink. It tasted pretty weird, but they were told it had some kind of herbs in it and the locals drank it to give them strength. They sat and drank it for a while with the crew on the boat, but they really couldn't handle much of it. The next day they saw a big glass jar of it in the boat's kitchen. It had various bits of bark in it, as well as - here's my point - gecko skins. Fortunately your little friend ended up with you instead of in Thailand! :&

Thanks Olive, I have a new screen saver. LMF

OO--I've heard of the worm in Tequila, but never the gekko in Chardonnay!!

Screen Saver!! His name in lights. Fame. Glory. Ah Gus Gecko is very proud indeed. He knew he'd have to do something daring to make it to the big time and now he's in.

Meetshare...that's the sort of thing you don't want to see <i>after</i> the fact. Yuck. Might be the end of my cocktail hours until I was on safe ground again! I too am glad Gus is an American gecko, and a good southern boy at that. ;) I can skip that worm infused tequilla too, sunbabe! There is a point to putting it in, other than grossing everyone out...but I don't recall what it is.

Gus is very happy to have found fans among the fodorites. ...the GEICO Gecko isn't the only one with his name in lights now! Gus Chalk Hill Gecko. Do you think they could use him?? lol

Yum. Chalk Hill. Hope there was plenty more left in the bottle.

Decided to pull up one of my fave threads (Thank you, Miz Scarlett! :-) ), to ask everyone what amazing critters they've seen lately???

We were on the coast of Maine last month, and saw a HUGE white swan..... magnificent, and so long since I'd seen one. A couple of months ago, my friend and I were driving through our neighborhood barely after dark, and RIGHT BY THE SIDE OF STREET (12 feet from the car, maybe) sat an oh-so-stately owl with his huge eyes peering at us....... We felt like we'd just stepped into a Harry Potter film! :-)

In my own backyard, we've welcomed the Hummers back for the season, along with the wonderful variety of birds we get this time of year. Mother Nature is GRAND! :-)

Aawww bonnie :D

We are still waiting and hoping for hummingbirds.
We have a family of red headed woodpeckers, it is fun watching parents teach babies to fly.
We had a nest of tiny tiny cardinals near our back door. We watched from mama building nest to babies hatching..then one morning, everyone was gone. Don't want to even consider what happened :(

We still get egrets too :)

Pup saw a Swan in San Marco, here in Jax and it went on with its grooming while he whined and wanted to get acquainted.. It would have been some sight if we had let him go :D

Here in Michigan, I'm enjoying the group of orieles[sp] that flit between my house and my neighbors. Found out this year that they like grape jelly. Can't wait to see the babies later in the summer.

Other than the usual iguanas, hummingbirds, etc. that we always see here on the island, I was absolutely shocked to see fire flies the other night. Or &quot;lightening bugs&quot; as I have always called them. I've NEVER seen them in this area before and was quite excited about it.

One of my favorite things about fishing is watching the bright colored dolphin swimming. Unfortunately, I also LOVE to eat them! :-d I love to watch the yellow fin tuna jumping out of the water when night fishing. Love to eat them, too...

I really enjoyed being a &quot;tourist&quot; a few weeks ago at a restaurant that used to be a favorite. We sat next to a tourist table who were just thrilled to watch the alligator, ducks &amp; turtles swimming in the bayou. It was nice to see it through someone elses eyes to remember to appreciate it.

One thing we have way too many of and can be seen on the sides of the road (dead &amp; alive) are nutria rats. Yuck. Nasty little suckers. I've got friends who have killed them for &quot;fun&quot; for years and are now getting paid $4/tail since they are such a problem. One friend bought a new boat for duck hunting that way! Boy... I think I've just confirmed what people think of us here in South La! :))

Pelicans are my absolute favorite. We see them in the Gulf also, but last fall I sat on the deck of a restaurant in Biloxi for HOURS just watching them fly back &amp; forth along the beach in the up &amp; down pattern that they do. Amazing sight.

Local news: Just read (literally since my last posting) a local newspaper with an article about nutria! Funny timing. Looks like the state paid $4/tail for over 297,000 nutria this &quot;season&quot;. Over $1Mill. Guess it's a small price to pay considering those nasty things eat our state away and multiply faster than rabbits!

Saw a ruby breasted grosbeak at my birdfeeder in Middle Tennessee for the first time in late April. Quite exciting to see a living thing you have never seen before

neworleanslady, is your friend who bought the boat for duck hunting married to his first cousin??? :p Bless his heart, I'll bet he is! :-d