Flamingo Gardens Ft. Lauderdale treasure

At last I have about 120 photos edited from our visit to Flamingo Gardens while we were in Ft. Lauderdale the first week of the year. I didn't want to start up without all of them sorted and ready to use. I don't want to post them all in a blog so I have loaded them on my flickr. page in a set called Florida 2012 with the other pictures from the proceeding three posts about our visit. Follow the link to go see the remainder of the images. Below are about 43 I liked a lot. I have three movies I will post separately later of the birds putting on a show.
This place is all about Birds! Trees too but mostly Birds and a few native cats, otters, alligators and turtles.

Barn owl keeps mice under control in barns! 

Swallow Tail Kite from the Gulf of Mexico area 

Bird man shows us a swallow tailed Kite 

Hawk that was rescued 

Black vultures in a cage recovering from wounds 

Rescued Barn Owls 

Roseate Spoonbill climbs the tree next to me 

Brown pelicans lounging in the sand and comforts of the aviary 

the amazing male Wood duck so colorful it looks like Disney did the coloring 

white ibis were lovely in the aviary ponds

whistling ducks were squeaking 

Snake headed  bird or Anihanga swims under water for fish then dries it's wet feathers in the sun. 

Red headed duck male is one of my favorites and I have seen them passing south here at home in Wash. DC

Walking tall with wings stretched out the Wood storks were displaying 

Wood stork puts on a show for the others in the aviary 

Roseate spoonbill 

brown pelican 

Cormorants preening in the aviary 

Flamingos are not native to Florida but these are 18-22 years old and were rescued somewhere nearby. 

Bobcats pacing round and round the cage waiting on dinner? 

Native Bob-cats in a cage were moving all the time. this one is on a tree trunk where it was scratching before something nearby caught it's attention 

wild wood storks 

river otters swimming around in their pool 

Pea-hen watching the male near by

Young male Pea-cock making a display for the Pea-hen. 

Bird island open to wild birds mostly white ibis 

Ibis flew over to investigate Keith and I on the deck 

Friendly Ibis 

Peacock in the grass 

The first ever I have seen Sandhill Crane! 

first Alligator we saw 

rare endangered Florida Panther 

huge vines in the trees 

Black and white birds of paradise flowers 

Keith taking photos of the big tree

black bamboo 

pretty color flower at the entrance. 

Flamingos are what color?

Fort Lauderdale

New years day 2012 Keith and I decided to hit the beach after a late lunch at the Floridian on Los Olas Avenue in old Fort Lauderdale Florida. It is one of those places that stays open 24-7 and 365days a year and a hot spot with the late night post party crowd as well as brunch queens. It was fun and we found a cool park just down the block on one of those canals that are like streets for the neighborhood of Downtown Ft. Lauderdale.
I was impressed with the trees and water and the nice flowers at a church across the street. We left there and went to a parking lot at one end of the beach drive A1A and walked the entire length of the beach down to where Sunrise boulevard intersects the A1A and turned around and walked back. There we found a cool sunset with palm trees and a couple green herons hanging around the piers.

the path into the park was very inviting so we walked over to see what we could see...

We saw the canal turns by the park and there was a lot of passing traffic. 

spanish moss hangs in some of the trees 

Bird of paradise show their blue tongues when they bloom before they are cut. 

orchids blooming in a planter box by the church

High-rise hotels and condos are spectacular but they block the afternoon sun on Ft. Lauderdale beach.

see how shady it is in the afternoon on the beachfront!

this shows the walk we were on which runs along the edge of the beach with a short white wall that opens at intersections to let swimmers in and has little open showers to wash off your feet before you put your shoes back on after swimming. 

Monster buildings really change the feel of the beach front.  They look a lot like the giant cruise ships that pass by leaving and coming into port. 

Keith carried his heavy camera and long lens to get some good photos

one of two green herons I spotted there and under the pier where I was standing 

sky turned orange in the end 

that is the other green heron flying over to meet the first 

This was a day with a high temperature of 81ºF and we really enjoyed extra low humidity that made it extra nice for a long walk. Great way to start our new year. Sunshine warm weather and exercise walking with lots to see along the way.