3 days in reverse order


2010 Feb. 5, Friday.
We left early, about 8:30, to go to Tibet-Butler Preserve, which is about 5 miles north of Disneyworld. We went early for two reasons - one, it’s supposed to rain later this afternoon, and two, we hope to see some songbirds early in the day. In the description of the place it mentions a hike to the waterfront (it’s on a lake) to see water birds, and hiking through hammocks and flatwoods for songbirds. Well, we were very disappointed. They did have a nice small nature center, but the trail to the lake was flooded. Part of it was on a boardwalk, but the rest of it was wet. After getting wet feet somewhat, we got to a point where you couldn’t walk without having boots on. So we went back and walked for an hour through a pine woods. It was okay, but we saw only one bird - a turkey vulture. Not too exciting! We sat on the porch of the nature center for awhile, because they had a lot of bird feeders out. We did not see anything until one small warbler (maybe a pine warbler, couldn’t see it very well) flew into some bushes nearby. Yesterday, I went to Lake Louisa State Park not expecting much and was delightfully surprised. Today, I had expectations of lots of birds, and was disappointed. The moral to this story is to not get expectation too high - just wait and see what develops. We had packed a lunch, but we left preserve about 10:30, so we took a drive north to Winter Garden, only a few more miles. It took us awhile to find a road west to Clermont, which is just north of Lake Louisa about 5 miles. I didn’t realize there are so many small lakes northwest of Orlando, so it’s hard to just find a road that goes west without a map. (Yes, I have a bunch of maps of the area but only had local maps with me. Maps of the broader area were all in our room at the resort.) We ate our picnic lunch back at the resort and had a relaxing afternoon. It rained pretty hard about 4:00, and there was a tornado watch in the area. We got about .5 inches of rain here but no storm. It’s going to be cooler tomorrow.


2010 Feb. 4, Thursday.
For our morning break, we went to the Starbucks at the Super-target. We both bought another book to read - so far, I have read 9 books in FL. For lunch, we went to the Bob Evans restaurant just a few blocks away. After lunch, we drove out to Lake Louisa State Park to do some hiking and bird watching. It’s about 15 miles northwest of Orlando. We were surprised at how big it was - many miles of hiking trails around several lakes. Lake Louisa is the largest, and it is several miles across. We walked for about 1.5 to 2 hours through a nice woods with several big live oaks draped with lots of Spanish moss, also many pine trees and wild orange trees. I added another new bird to my life list - Florida Scrub Jay. They look a lot like our blue jays, but have lighter blue coloring in general. We also saw eastern phoebe, red-bellied woodpecker, red-shouldered hawk, turkey vulture, catbird, robin (maybe from IL, getting south where it’s warm), and mocking bird (chasing the robin and catbird). We drove around the park, looking at the campground area and the cabins. Nice two bedroom modern cabins on a hill looking over one of the lakes. Home for supper.


2010 Feb. 3, Wednesday.
This morning we went to the Dunkin’ Donuts for coffee, donut, and computer work. When we came back to the resort, we took a short walk down the street and went in a gift shop. It had the typical tourist stuff, nothing interesting. Lunch here, then we drove to Disney’s Boardwalk. It costs nothing to go there and is entertaining. There are several large resorts around a small lake, with many shops along a boardwalk. There are two canals out of the lake that go to more resorts and some Disney attractions (Epcot and Hollywood Studios). It is possible to walk throughout the entire area, but it is too far to do at one time. We walked around the lake, stopped to have a soda and milk shake, and walked to one of the resorts, the Dolphin. It is huge, has a nice water feature at the entrance, and has a huge lobby. Inside, it reminds us of Las Vegas. Then we got on a free boat shuttle that goes around the whole area. It is fun just to ride on this boat and watch the people getting on and off. There are even some water birds - mallard ducks, coots, egrets, and little blue herons. By the time we walked back to the car, my new hip was telling me I had done a little too much! Actually, I think it’s good to push it a little, as long as it does no harm. Home for supper.