Feb. 11, 2017--- back to Atlanta by way of Providence Canyon State Park in Georgia:

It was a fast week in Orlando.  Not the usual Orlando trip when you think of Orlando----no theme parks, no Mickey, no spending thousands of dollars.  Instead we went birding and even took time out of the trip to get 2 new tires for our car.  But it was a fun trip none the less.
Originally I had hoped to extend our trip and go to Clearwater or S. Florida, or even the Destin area for a day or 2, but we ended up just heading back to Georgia.  We've done a lot of traveling this year, so going back to Georgia was almost like going on another vacation.  I had actually reserved a couple nights at the new Wyndham Clearwater resort for 2 nights, but when I found out they charged $25/night for parking, I cancelled those reservations.  I was also anxiously looking forward to checking out another Georgia State Park in the Southwest part of the state.  It's a long way from north of Atlanta to do as a day trip, but was only about 70 miles out of the way heading back from Orlando.  So that was our big plans for today---back to Buford by way of Providence Canyon State Park.
With the long day ahead of us, we pack up the car and were on the road by 8:30am.
Bye bye clover leafs with wetlands in the middle of them.

 bye to the greenery and flowers for a little while longer.

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.

Feb. 10, 2017  another reciprocal garden:

I  found another "garden" in Orlando that was listed in the MOBOT reciprocal membership list---Albin polasek museum and sculpture garden---so we decided to go check it out.  Hadn't been to this garden before.  Founded in 1961, the Albin Polasek Museum & Sculpture Gardens is home to an art collection focusing primarily on American representational sculpture created by Czech-American sculptor Albin Polasek. 

The museum itself is Polasek’s Mediterranean-style retirement home and studio on 3.5 acres of land fronting Lake Osceola. 

Feb. 9, 2017---the ever popular Lakefront Park!

I guess if you live near there it is, but I had never heard of it and still wouldn't have heard of it if we didn't need a couple new tires for our Taurus.  Turned out to be a blessing in disguise!  Loved the park and that whole area.  I think it's still part of Kissimmee, but it was about 30 minutes down 192 from Orange Lake.   Ken made a 2 pm appointment to get the tires changed, so we left early and decided to check out Lakefront Park which was only a couple miles from the tire shop.  Don't know if it's listed as a birding place, but I did run into someone else there who was staying at Orange Lake and they had been told about this park for birding.  It turned out to be quite nice!

Our first birds---a group of white ibises

 a female grackle.  I love the sound the grackles make!

Feb. 8, 2017  to Merritt Island and the Cape Canaveral Sea Shore:

 This was the one place I knew I wanted to go to before we even came to Orlando.  I came across several people at Wakodahatchee last year that said I had to go to Merritt Island for the best birding.  It is a bit of a drive from the Orlando area---about 1 1/2 hours, but it was a pretty drive.
Our first hint that we were going over a large body of water and over to an island.

 heading onto the island.

Feb 7, 2017 --Part 2, on to Disney Springs:

Even though we didn't do any of the Disney parks this trip, we did go to one of the Disney resorts for an early dinner.  Last year some friends showed us how to take the ferries from Disney Springs to Port Orleans.  We had a really great carved turkey dinner there in their Mill Cafeteria and decided to try and do that again today.  Only problem was that we got there before 5 and they don't have the carved meals before then.  But the boat ride and lunch at Port Orleans was still a lot of fun and tasty.

Loved these palm tree columns on a building in Disney Springs.

Waiting for the ferry boat

Feb. 7, 2017---Harry P Leu Gardens:

The forecast said we'd have rain today, so we put off going to Merrit Island another day.  But it turned out to be a pretty nice day afterall.  I started it off with a walk by the lake across the street from our condo while Ken fought with our internet connection.
Love the landscaping around the resort!

Hibiscus always remind me of Hawaii, so they're a favorite of mine.