It has rained on Dewees twice in two days, for the first time in what seems like ages.  Every afternoon we have heard the rumbles of thunder on the mainland and watch the sky go dark, but the strong sea breeze has kept the clouds away.

Finally we managed a decent thunderstorm on Monday night (which made for a spectacular sunset, so send pics if you caught it) and last night it rained in wee hours sometime.

While we welcome the diminished mosquitoes (and smaller banana spiders) that come with dry summers, it might be the lack of water that has kept some of our more elusive creatures visible along the roadside.  Native rice rats are the smaller cousin of wharf, or Norway rats, and we have never seen quite so many of either.  We’ve seen rats jump in surprise as we rode by, rats sprint directly into the ocean and begin swimming for Wild Dunes, rats aimlessly wandering in the roadway or crouching in the grass near the road.  The rice rats (below) are cute, sort of like gerbils, but the larger wharf rats with longer tails look like nefarious characters from a children’s book.