MaryKate had the day off last Thursday for Independence Day and invited me to walk around Lake Dixie and Lake Cherokee with her.  I was glad to go – I’d been by before, but only inside a car and unable to take a close look.  We also wanted to check on how the cygnets she wrote about on Fathers Day are doing.

Lake Cherokee

Lake Cherokee is the smaller of the two and both are lovely.  For a location in downtown Orlando they have a lot of wildlife.  Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised by this since they’re very close to Greenwood Park and Cemetery, where there’s also a lot of wildlife.

One of the first things we encountered was this Heron.  I thought at first it was a Green Heron, but got some help with the ID on Flickr.  It was small and still – and I glanced right past it without any recognition.  I’m glad MaryKate commented on it so I could make a photo!  Least Bitterns are supposed to be common in this type of environment, but I don’t  see them much.  I think because they’re so good at hiding!

Hunting Heron (Least Bittern)

Next we came up to this Mallard posing for me in the grass in front of some yellow flowers.

Mallard

And there were several Wood Ducks.  I’ve seen them before at Greenwood and Mead Gardens, but hadn’t paid attention to their non breeding colors.  This young one is interesting and I’m looking forward to spring time when their plumage starts changing.

Juvenile Wood Duck

Here’s a bird that I’d never seen before or even heard of.

Swan Goose

Swan Geese are native to the Far East and have also been domesticated.  There were two, this one and another that was all white.  It’s likely they escaped or were released from captivity since they don’t occur naturally in the US.

This Mottled Duck was resting in a notch about seven feet above ground. It watched us as I made the photo, but didn’t seem nervous. The tree was right next to the sidewalk and it must be used to people nearby.

Sleepy Duck

Unfortunately, there’s some bad news about the Lake Cherokee Mute Swan family.  There were initially three babies, but only one’s been seen lately.

From across the lake, MaryKate and I spotted two adults  but no babies.  We worried they’d lost the last cygnet too.  But when we got closer, we saw what was going on – Mom was riding the baby on her back!

Mute Swan Mom carrying baby

We also saw Limpkins, Common Gallinules, Great Egrets, a second Mute Swan family (with four large juveniles!), Anhingas, and several turtles.  What a wonderful walk and what an unexpected abundance of things to experience and photograph!  Thanks for inviting me, MaryKate!

You can click on each of these images to view a larger version on Flickr.  And if you’re interested, I’ve started collecting my photos from here in this album on Flickr.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!

©2019, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved