Birds

June 24, 2006


Lakeland is blessed with so many lakes and parks. Where I live is in the midst of a conservation area full of small lakes and strips where they mined phosphate and water has taken over. Loads of woods and water. You'd think we'd be inundated with wildlife, but in two years we haven't even seen evidence of racoons. There are so many birds that mornings sound like an entire orchestra tuning up.

Lake Morton has so many swans.. both black and white. We've seen the little signets in the spring and the adults all year long. These are pictures taken at Lake Morton. On windy days you can feel the excitement in the birds. They seem to fling themselves into the air for the sheer fun of it.

There are a few squabbles among the swans especially. They seem to be in charge and shoo any of the other birds out of their way when they have a task at hand.









Even the black pidgeons are beautiful.

It always amazes me the variety of birds on the lakes around here.

The signets are so adorable - They have large cages half in and half out of the water to protect the swans while they are setting on the eggs and while the little ones are so vulnerable.

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I love to watch the pelicans. All the birds seem to be SO white. It was a surprise to see the black underside of the pelicans wings.

Visiting the parks is always wonderful and refreshing. Pictures make it doubly enjoyable. I'm anxious to get another camera that will take better quality pictures. So many "Foto-Ops" as they say. Another hobby - I love pictures of flowers. The ones in my garden may fade, but the pictures are there forever. Someone on Garden Web had some pictures of roses and I swear I could smell roses, they were so beautiful and such great pictures.