2017 Kissimmee Week 8

Here we are starting our last week in Kissimmee.  We didn't do as much biking this week, so not as many pictures.  Consequently, Anna and Rylee, you are getting off a little bit lighter this week.  Hope you enjoy the pictures, anyway.  

One of my favorite things to see in Florida are the pelicans.  There are lots of Brown Pelicans near the coasts, but I love to see the white ones.  We went to a lake in Lakeland, and found a bunch of them one day this week.  This one was taking a bath, doing a lot of splashing.  

                                      There were also a lot of swans in the lake.  It always surprises me to see the black ones.  They are also very pretty.  

    
There are also swans which are called Black-necked Swans, and this one was sitting on a nest.  She did not want me to come any closer, and was making that very plain!  

      

And if that wasn't enough, she sent her mate after me!  I started to back away as fast as possible as he came toward me, then I turned tail and RAN!  Fortunately for me, he gave up the chase.  

    Here is the kind of swan that we see most often.  It's called a "Mute Swan".  #1  Look up "mute" in the dictionary, and tell me why you think this one is called a Mute Swan  

#2  Where do you think you would be most likely to find geese like these?

Here's a new kind of duck for you.  It is called a Bufflehead.  I believe this one is a female, as the male is more black and white, and I never saw any males.  It is a diving duck.  

  This is one of the lovely scenes by the lake in the middle of the city.  Remember last week I told you about the cyprus trees, and how the bottoms "butress" out when they stand in water?  There are also lots of "knees" around the trees.

     Here's a good look at the "beak pouches" on the pelicans.  #3 How do you think these pouches would help a pelican when it is finding something to eat?

#4  Do you remember the name of this duck?  What did I say it should be called instead?  








 "You kids get back here and stay close to me!"  #5  What might happen to them if they don't obey?






      This is a feeding box, which the city puts up to feed the swans.  There are several of them around the lake, and I think there is corn in them.  The swans can reach them with their long necks, but often spill some of the corn, and the diving ducks hang around waiting for it to spill into the water.  It's an easy meal for them!

Another day this week, we biked around the small town of Celebration, a town built by Disney.  There are a few miles of elevated wooden boardwalks through some swampy areas, and it makes for great biking!                    

This week, for the first time, I smelled orange blossoms, so I stopped to take a picture.  They smell so sweet!

 It seems funny to us northerners, but the blossoms are on the trees at the same time as the oranges.  #6  Why do you think that is possible in the south?  If you look really hard, you might see some blossoms to the left and right of the orange.    

                                       We also saw this beautiful tree covered with big yellow blossoms like this.....but they had no scent.

That day was very very hot, and I thought I would see lots of alligators out of the water, sunning themselves on the banks, but I never saw even one!  I think this furry little fellow was hot, though, and we saw him laid out flat on his belly on a shady part of the sidewalk.  At first, I thought he was injured, and stopped to check on him after I rode past.  But he just got up and ran away, so I guess he was okay.

     
I was lucky to see this woodpecker in the woods, but it was hard to get a good picture.  He kept going behind the tree!  I looked in my bird book, and decided he is a Red-bellied Woodpecker.  It looks like some pretty hard stuff he was pecking at!

  #7  Why do you think I refer to this immature Little Blue Heron as an "opportunist"?  Look up the word in the dictionary, and see if you can come up with an answer.

 
A lot of the time that we bike in Celebration, we bike beside waterways, and there are flowers that grow along the edges.  This is one of those, as are the next 2 pictures.

           

That's it for this time.  We went to Gatorland one day, and I took a LOT of pictures, but that's one whole blog in itself.  I believe next Monday, you will be on March Break, so I will have a blog for the day you get back to school.  
UNTIL THEN..........                                  

2017 Kissimmee Week 7

We're nearing the end of our time in Kissimmee.  Just one full week and one part week left.  The time has gone fast!  Anna and Rylee, if you remember, last week's blog involved only one day - the day we went to the Fair and the Rodeo.  Today, it will cover most of two weeks.  Hope you like it!  I'm going to make you work!

I thought this was kind of cool.  Not only moss growing on a tree, but ferns growing out of the moss.  Did you know that moss usually grows on the north side of a tree?  So if you are lost in the woods, you will know which way you are facing by that bit of information.  
                                                                                       

 
 This fellow looks as if he has been into the "hootch"!   

                                          This tiny little water bird is called a Pied-billed Grebe.  He spends more time under the water than above, and so it is hard to catch a picture of him.  

   One day we drove to a different area to walk.  The paths on the sides of this creek were pretty "rooty", so easier to walk on than bike.  It is called Shingle Creek, and is the northernmost headwater for the Everglades.  The Everglades are also known as a "River of Grass", where the water flows through on its way to the Gulf of Mexico.  #1  Find Gulf of Mexico and Everglades in the atlas.  Hint : The Everglades are in Florida, USA.  

I've shown you pictures before of the Little Blue Heron - one of my favorites.......

  

.......and this is the Little Blue Heron as a youngster.  He is white, but if you look very closely, you might notice that he is starting to turn blue.  

I'm always surprised to see these big birds roosting in trees.  They are sometimes called "Florida Chickens" and I always wondered why.  Now I know.  Natives and early settlers hunted them and ate them.  They said they tasted like chicken!  Now they are protected, and you cannot kill them.  They have become VERY plentiful!  

 #2  I would like you to look closely at this alligator and, using some very descriptive words, give three descriptions of him.

Remember the "Florida Chicken"?  This is called a Glossy Ibis, and is much less common than the White Ibis.







I just love turtles!

 

  Bottoms up!!!     These are dabbling ducks as opposed to diving ducks.  They dabble around in shallow water and eat off the bottom.

                                         This little squirrel was running up a tree, with a nut in his mouth, then stopped and put it in his hands and chewed away on it.  Cute!

     










                                          On my husband Paul's birthday, we went to a "Dinner Theatre" - the kind I like, with horses.  You sit at tables in tiers. #3  Look up tier in the dictionary.  It is in a large arena with sand on the floors, and we are entertained by horses and riders, in this case Knights from the "Medieval Times".  This was the menu of food which we were served, and it was served on pewter plates.  We had to eat it with our fingers.  Fun!

There were so many beautiful horses!

Very talented horses!

 We were in the yellow section, and cheered for the yellow knight.  After each of the "games" they competed in, the knights were given flowers to throw to their cheering section.  I never got one.

There were 6 horses in this group, and one of them actually jumped straight up with all four feet in the air - very difficult for a horse to do!

      This man was the emcee for the evening.  I think his horse is called a Friesian .  They are raised in a province in Netherlands called Friesland.  #4 Find Friesland and Netherlands in the Atlas.

The Mama Sandhill Crane  is still sitting on her two eggs.  She has her eyes closed in this picture.

 #5 Why do you think she has  her eyes open in this picture?  

     This is a Bald Cypress Tree.  It is a "deciduous" "conifer".  #6  Look up these two words in the dictionary.  I have shown you pictures of the "knees" which are part of its root system, but it is also distinctive in the shape that it often takes at the bottom.  It is called "buttressing".  This is caused by the roots sitting in water for long periods of time.  










This is a Florida Red-bellied Turtle.

                                     

     You can never have too many turtles on a log!  

On Saturday, we went to the Circle Bar B Reserve, a protected "reserve"  for wildlife.  In one area we counted 13 of these tiny alligators!  I was a little nervous, because the Mama gator is usually pretty close to her babies, and can be aggressive, but we never saw her.

   



Baby Alligator Collage.  

 You have seen quite a few pictures of an Anhinga, usually drying his wings.  This is what they look like when those wings are saturated with water.  Just the head is out, and some people call it a "Snake Bird".

 There have been some pictures and videos of a huge alligator called "Humpy" eating another large alligator.  (A giant wouldn't do that, would he?)  This is Humpy!

Here's looking at you!  Lucky I had a long lens for this guy!  

Another juvenile Little Blue Heron.

We were so lucky to see a Bald Eagle, even if it was at quite a distance.  You can see the nest at the right.  Big, isn't it?

There are a lot of poisonous snakes in Florida, but it is very rarely that we see one. This little guy was very small, swimming in a puddle.  I don't know if it is a poisonous one or not.  

     

 Finally, I saw a Roseate Spoonville!  #7 Tell me two reasons this is a good name for this bird.  

       
 I actually only saw three of them.  This is a collage of those three.

  I always get excited when I see an Armadillo.  They are just so different than anything else I see.







 

I only saw one that day, but took lots of pictures.  Another collage.

 

UNTIL NEXT WEEK........