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.

Feb. 6, 2017  hanging around the resort:

Yeah, they talked us into going to the "owner update".  We often say, "No" to the "updates", but hadn't been to the one here in awhile so decided to go and get our $50 resort gift card.  It was scheduled for this morning.  They were suppose to send someone to pick us up---as a courtesy---at 10:30.  10:30 came and went.  But she did arrive about 20 'til.  She immediately asked why we were doing the "presentation".  Told her because the guy with the parking pass told us to.  She told us we didn't have to, but by then I was wanting the $50.  So we went.  Of course it took longer then the hour they promised---but that's no surprise.  Signed some paper, again, saying that we reject paying $34,000 to convert our week to Holiday Inn Resorts.  They kept showing us what we could have gotten if we hadn't rejected it---to which I said why are you showing us that now?  We've been to lots of "owner update" presentation (we own at Wyndham and Worldmark, too) so the hard sales don't bother us too often.  This one was no exception.  Got our 5 $10 coupons and used them for 2 nights dinners at their on-site sports bar restaurant and some danishes for our ride back to Atlanta.  But by the time we were done with this presentation, we just hung around the resort.
There are actually a lot of birds around the resort.  Here's another one right outside our back patio---a white ibis.

 more flowers by our condo.

Feb. 5-2017  finding the birds:

Where was the first place I looked?----right outside our villa.  I was able to sit on our patio and watch some birds in the trees right there.  Wasn't easy catching these very active tiny birds!  I think this is a blue gray gnatcatcher.

 or a black tail gnatcatcher.