Wildlife in Orlando

I've been hearing about Louie for over a year now.
Louie is the resident alligator at this place.

Louis hasn't been tagged or anything and he hasn't flashed his drivers license, but one of the residents of this community has taken a real interest in the wildlife around here.

The bride in this photo is Meg and the groom is Jon.  They live in the community shown above and they enjoy their wildlife friends.  Meg gives facebook updates on Louie.  I get a kick out of it :)

I've known about Meg for almost 20 years, but had only met her once before.  You see, she's been one of Bob's best friend since they were wee little ones, so she's been in lots of conversations and stories that I've heard.  Meg used to live on the East Coast fairly close to Bob for a long time, but now she's moved down here to FL and she just recently got married - so I had to bring all of us together.

Road Trip!!

Not to mention, I wanted to see Louie!

Louie had babies.  Can you see that little gator body hanging out on the edge of the pond?  I tried to get closer but I freaked him out and he flew into the pond!

So then all I saw of the gator baby was his head.  Beware of the gator head!

Another one of Louie's kids was hanging out on the other side of the pond.

All of this talk about Louie and he never did show himself.

Meg pointed out the Bald Eagle on our drive into her community.
I can see why nature photographers have telephoto lenses.  I'm just pretending you can see something.

"See that black dot with a smaller white dot on top of it?  Yep!  That's a Bald Eagle.  Now get a good look."

Then we walked across the street to look in the other pond to see if maybe Louie was there.  We didn't see Louie but we did see this gorgeous Blue Heron.  Once again, that telephoto lens would be so helpful. 

At the other end of this pond was this delightful pair of Sandhill Cranes.  They were not scared of me, which was a relief because I was able to get fairly close.

They were both very interested in all of the insects and other delectables in the ground.  Most of the time they both had their heads down, but I managed to catch them a few times taking a short break.

I didn't realize that Sandhill Cranes were so large.  I always pictured them as small thin birds.  I was wrong.  Very wrong.

Here's another shot of Meg's fishy that was my Photo of the Day this morning.  It's just the cutest thing!

Meg and Jon got married just a few days before we arrived so I took a few shots of the roses they received from family.   Their house was so dark that I had a real hard time.  I was really wishing for a little Lisa Ceaser magic, that's for sure. 

I thought this beautiful pottery by the door was a great ending to the photo story. 

Thanks Meg and Jon for meeting us at IKEA, for taking us on a wildlife tour, for the wonderful dinner at Opa and for the big laughs we had reading the mash book from your college days.  (Mittens rules!!) Thanks for the comfortable guest rooms and the breakfast in the morning.  Thanks also for leading me directly to the expressway after breakfast so that I didn't have to think about it :)  It was such a joy to see you again Meg and so nice to finally meet Jon for the first time.  Congratulations you two.

In a few years Bob is going to have to move down here so she can hang out with her BFFs more often.  I can see it now  :)

Have a great day!
Kristin