BIRDS OF FLAMINGO GARDENS: SCENES FROM FLORIDA - PART 3

What do you do when your son comes to spend his spring break week in Florida, 

and it rains the first five days of his vacation?
You toss out a whole bunch of suggestions of things to do, 
hoping that one will pique his interest.

And let me add right here, coming up with activities 
for a 20-year-old to do with mom and dad is not easy.

Most times, the answer was, 
"No, thanks, I'm just going to watch Netflix."

Suggestion #437 was a family excursion to Flamingo Gardens 
on an on-and-off rainy afternoon.
I did not expect this one to fly, so to speak,
but this bird-brained idea that I'd hatched was a winner.

 "Yeah, okay."

I'm sure that part of his agreement to tag along 
had to do with taking some cool pictures for Snapchat.  
Frankly, my own desire wasn't much different........
I couldn't wait to turn my camera lens onto those exotic fine-feathered beauties. 

My Minutecast weather app said "no precipitation for the next 120 minutes."

We took advantage of the open "weather" window,
jumped in the car, and headed down I-95.

As soon as we arrived, the skies opened up with a soaking downpour. 
So much for Minutecast, which is, well, usually pretty accurate to the minute. 

We had to kill time in the gift shop until the rain let up. 
As one would expect, everything was flamingo-themed. 
However, my wallet would be staying in my purse, because,
when we bought our place in Florida, 
I had one unbreakable decor rule:

It would be a flamingo-free zone.

No flamingo salt and pepper shakers....... 
No flamingo bath towels.......
No flamingo dishes, picture frames, or figurines........
And, absolutely no plastic flamingos on the terrace. 
Only pictures of flamingos that I took myself would be allowed in our apartment.

But, being trapped in a flamingo-themed gift shop 
can break even the toughest flamingo-resistor.
I cracked under the pressure, and bought a spoon rest, and a pencil. 
I can live with that.

The rain let up and we followed the map to the flamingo pond.

Considering that the name of the park is Flamingo Gardens, 
one might expect that flamingos would be roaming around everywhere.
Not so.
The flamingo area is a fairly small section of the 60-acre park.
It's kind of a flamingos-gone-wild situation.

Flamingo Gardens is actually a not-for-profit botanical gardens and wildlife sanctuary, 
hosting a wide variety of endangered plant and bird species. 
Aside from birds, there are otters, alligators, bobcats and more.
All of the wildlife residents are permanently injured, non-releasable animals.
Here, they are given a home where they have a safe refuge.
It's like assisted living for wildlife.  

The flamingos did steal the show, though.  
The long-legged birds of pink and orange plumes 
offered this blogger quite a satisfactory photographic opportunity. 
Their graceful poses and contortions were a source of endless entertainment.

Had I been alone, I could have taken pictures for hours,
which in turn would have eaten up all of the storage space on my laptop.
 Lucky for you, I was prodded along by Mr. and Junior Goo Shoes,
to move on and see the Aviary and Bird of Prey Center.  

We saw........

White Ibis.......

Pelicans.......

Spoonbills....... 

Muscovy Ducks.......

Egyptian Geese.......

 

Owls...... 

Hawks........

and glorious Bald Eagles.

There were some that I couldn't identify.  
Is this a juvenile Wood Stork?

And could this be a white pelican?
Please help me identify them if you can. 

Peacocks did roam the grounds freely.
They were definitely the runners-up for Most Popular Bird, 
second only to the namesakes of the park.

Just as we were leaving the park, one decided to show off, and

give us our money's worth.

And just in case you were wondering what the back of a peacock looks like.......

The end.  

PS - Junior Goo Shoes did, in fact, enjoy Flamingo Gardens! 
We all did!

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