2017 Winter Week 5

Week Five!  I can't believe it!  And I understand that, as it is very warm here today, it is snowing a lot at home.  I wonder if Monday will be another snow day in Cobourg.  Anna and Rylee, I hope you will be able to see this.  Once again, we have had a great week, with much time on the bikes with the camera hanging around my neck.  I'm glad to share some of my pictures with you.  

Almost every day when we set out on the bikes, we take a picnic lunch with us.  One of my friends gave me this blue freezer lunch box, and it has been very well used!  Another friend gave me the car blanket, and we use it as a table cloth.   I have very good friends!   

                                                                 This little bird stuck his head through a chain-link fence and said "Take my picture!"  Of course, I had to do it!   

        This male and female Hooded Merganser pair are my new favorite birds.  #1 Which is the male? #2  Why do you think this?

This lovely fellow just sat there and begged me to take his picture!   

Another turtle.  I almost ran over him with my bike as he sauntered across the path.  I think he is called a Striped Mud Turtle. 

Remember "Where's Waldo?"  Can you find the fly on the flower?  

   This is a Turkey Vulture.  I know this because of his head.  He has red and white on his ugly face.  

                                          This is a Black Vulture.  I know this because of his face as well.  It is all black.  This poor little squirrel got hit by a car, and the vultures were quite willing to dispose of him.  Vultures are called scavengers.  #3  Look up scavenger in the dictionary and write a definition.                                               

                                                     Can you stand perfectly still on one foot for a long time like this Great Blue Heron?  

      These are samples of the Monarch and the Viceroy Butterflies.  

This week we went to the Florida State Fair in Tampa, and there was a big net tent with flowers and butterflies inside.  I loved it!  #4 After studying the 2 butterflies above, tell me what kind of butterfly this is.  

    I had lots of fun in the butterfly tent!  

We enjoyed watching a show which featured some Grizzly Bears.  One of them had a bit of an attitude that day and was snarling at her handler.  Made me nervous!  To calm her down, they fed her honey from a plastic bear-shaped container.  

      Another show we saw at the fair was a circus.  It's pretty cool that one price to get into the fair lets you see lots of shows and animals.  

    Best of all for me was a show hitching up and driving a team of eight horses called Clydesdales.  I love horses, and seeing 8 of them hitched up and being driven was great.  #5  What is another reason I enjoyed seeing this?  

     I love turtles, but this is one I don't want to swim with!  It is called an Alligator Snapping Turtle.  You can see that it is huge and mean-looking.    




                                                                            In the fairgrounds is an area called Cracker Country (dating back to when Florida was mostly cattle country).  It is like a Pioneer Village, and this lady was playing the piano and singing in the church.  She was singing "What a Friend We Have in Jesus", the second-most popular hymn in the world, and we were able to brag to her that it was written by Joseph Scriven, who lived in Bewdley.  

                                         Another building in the village was a schoolhouse.  This school would have had one teacher, who would have taught all of the grades from one to eight.  Not too many desks, are there?  

   This man was actually building violins, and this lady, just another visitor like us, came along and picked one up and played it.  He seemed quite happy at that.  

  This lady is from South Carolina, and was weaving baskets from Sweet Grass and long pine needles.  The baskets are beautiful, but VERY expensive!  

    This was fun to watch.  A mule with a man riding him was harnessed to this machine, walking around and around.  Another man was feeding sugar cane sticks into the machine, which were having the sap squeezed out of them.  

   The sap was dripping into a bucket after being run through a cloth to filter out any impurities.  This is then boiled, like maple sap, to make a syrup.  It's also boiled longer to make molasses.  

        Don't you just love giraffes?  Their tongues are so long!  #6  What colour is the giraffe's tongue?  They were being fed carrots, which they loved.  

        #7  What is a difference between Alpacas and Llamas?  #8  What other animal do they resemble? 

 This little calf had been born about an hour before we saw it.  People were free to watch that happen.  We watched it get to its feet for the first time.  Amazing!  

These triplet goats were born in the trailer on the way to the fair 2 days ago.  They were SO cute!  I could have watched them for hours!  Especially the black and white one - he literally was jumping straight up in the air, having a wonderful time!  

This Mocking Bird is singing in a Live Oak tree.  It is called Live Oak because it never is without leaves.  As one dies, a new one pushes it off and takes its place.We have oak trees as well.  #9  Tell me 2 differences between this oak and our oak trees.  

Well, we are back on the bikes again, visiting the Sandhill Crane, who is sitting on 2 eggs.  Do you see the nostrils in the crane's upper beak?  It's kind of neat that you can see right through it.  

  We found this Limpkin also sitting on a nest.  It's in a tree, so I can't see into it, but I'm hoping she has eggs as well.  

   This turtle and fish were hanging out together, waiting for someone to throw them a treat.  

                                                I just love the white water lilies!  

                                        How many lizards do you see?  I saw one today when we were out for lunch, but didn't have the camera with me.  It was the biggest one I have ever seen!  I should NEVER go out without the camera!  

                                          Someone threw a crumb, the fish missed it, and the turtle blew a bubble over it!  

         

   Until next week........

                           

2017 Winter Week Four

Another week has passed!  I can't believe how fast the weeks go by!  Time for another blog for my young friends, Anna and Rylee.  We've had a good week, with warm, sunny days, and lots of biking.  Here are a few pictures from our week.   

This little duck appears to be very young, and is bravely wandering away from his Mom.....

 .....whereas this little one was sticking really close to Mom!    

 There is a place quite near to us that is called Old Town.  There is a main street that has some stores and restaurants, and beside it is a "Fun Spot" with lots of rides - some for kids and some for older people.  Sometimes they have old cars there at night for people to enjoy.  

This truck sure does have BIG wheels!             

Every once in awhile we have to check in on the Sandhill Cranes.  Still 2 eggs!  

I love to watch these little birds.  They are called Coots, and they like to eat "salad".  You can see that the water beads up on them and runs off.  #1  Why does this happen?  

Paul threw a scrap of food to the fish, and this one made it disappear very quickly!  

For the most part, nature seems to tolerate other species, such as these creatures are doing......                                                               .......but occasionally even "birds of a feather" can't get along!  

 

 I just loved the look of this cute little horse in sunglasses.  He's on the street in "Downtown Kissimmee", which is where the REAL Kissimmee used to be before Mickey Mouse came to town.  Now it is spread out for miles along a highway called 192.  This old town is located on a lake called Lake Tohopekaliga, and they have spent MANY dollars fixing up the waterfront park.  We love to go there.  The locals call the lake Lake Toho.    

 This mural is on the side of a very old hardware store, and it is supposed to depict the downtown of Kissimmee in 1935.  Can you see Paul petting the dog in the mural?      

                                             This beautiful little bird was singing his heart out.  I believe he is called a Yellow-rumped Warbler.       







This is one of the three Alligators we saw that day in Lake Toho.  I don't think I would want to swim in that lake!   

This little Anole Lizard was happy to pose for me, and kept pushing out the "dewlap" under his throat.  #2  Why do you think these lizards do this?   

I always thought all turtles were flat on the bottom, and was surprised to see the shape of this one!  I googled Florida turtles, and I believe this one is called a Peninsula Cooter.  #3 Google Peninsula Cooter and tell me one thing that you learned about them.                                  

The Little Green Heron is a bird I don't see very often, but saw 2 of them that day.  They are pretty well camouflaged and hard to spot.  

                                                                            

This Tri-coloured  Heron has caught himself a little lunch.  Can you see the tiny fish at the end of his beak?  

This is a Monarch butterfly, and we see lots of them in Cobourg in the summer, but it is very similar to another one called  the Viceroy Butterfly.  

    

This bird has me mystified.  I think it is a kind of Night Heron, perhaps an immature one.     

Once again we saw a hawk in the park where we usually see them, but this one seemed much larger than usual.  

    I'm having a real struggle with the blog lately, so not sure I can continue with it.  If anyone has any suggestions for a different blog site, I would appreciate hearing about it.

Until next time...........