Feb. 10, 2017  (part 2) Apopka Lake wildlife area:

It looked like Apopka was sort of on our way back to Orange Lake from the Albin Polasek museum and sculpture garden, so we headed there to see if it was as great as it was when we were there on Sunday.  No birds eating snakes, turtles or crustaceans, but it was still pretty neat.
 Heading into the drive.

 We've seen a lot of Ospreys since we've been in Orlando, but this was the first Hawk we saw.

 An alligator posing nicely.

 Palm warbler

 Did catch this Cormorant getting some dinner.

 This time we even saw two Sandhill Cranes there.  They looked like they were amused by us bird watchers.

 an Osprey

 Great Blue Heron

 flying Osprey

 another view of the roadway.

 glossy Ibis with an itch

 a Limpkin

 some of the wildflowers along the way

 a Bittern

 more wildflowers.

 These guys were buddies---following each other around.

 Northern Shoveler---love their odd beaks.

 Green Heron

 another Great Blue

 a couple Teals

 the hawk in flight.

 Snowy Egret

 sneaky alligator

 ????

 After driving through the 11 mile loop of the Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive, we went to the park at the North Shore Trailhead to take a walk.

 Had a little trouble figuring out the map, but finally got it.

 more wild flowers.

 The trail was by the lake, but there wasn't much going on there.

 saw several animal prints, but not many animals----

 other than 4 or 5 armadillos!

 and this wood pecker.

 our selfie

 at least there were some interesting wild flowers

 Almost back to the car.

 Ken looked up what this was all about.   It's in memory of the 49 killed at a nightclub in Orlando last year by a terrorist.

 Sunset from the car as we were driving back to Orange Lake.

 No clouds, but still an interesting sunset.

We were told of a couple other places that we should go to not too far from Kissimmee for great bird watching.  Unfortunately this was our last day there and I've already forgotten the names of those places!  But it was nice finding out that Orlando is a great place for birding, too.  You don't have to go to Orlando just for Disney.