Our Routine

Our days here have become quite routine.

We’re up early in the morning to take a sunrise drive around the campground roads.   There is always a lot of wildlife along the main road.

Sunrise on the prairie is lovely.

The picture below is of a family of Crested Caracara.  They are fairly rare around the state, except here in Kissimmee Prairie where they are plentiful.

Plenty of reptiles.

The following picture was taken by my assistant.   Even with my zoom (stalker) lens, I couldn’t take this shot……too scary.

It’s a bit blurry…my assistant needs more practice. 

We love to hear the songs of the Meadowlark.  The picture below is a juvenile.  He’s just learning to sing.

You almost always see a Red Shouldered Hawk sitting on a fence post.

Turkeys are everywhere.

Our new neighbors.

After the morning drive around the park, we took a 2.5 mile hike into the prairie.  We actually saw more wildlife along the road.

I believe the next picture is a juvenile Towhee.

Lots of flowers

It was cool when we left the house this morning, but it starts warming up quickly, so our hikes are short.

The afternoon temperature has been getting up to 94 degrees.  It’s just too hot to spend much time outside, unless you are in an air conditioned vehicle.

We’ve been spending the middle part of the day inside watching “24”, napping, or reading.

By the time it starts to cool off, the afternoon thunderstorms are starting to form, so you have to be careful of the lightning.  More people are killed from lightning  in Florida than anywhere else  in the world, and most of those fatalities are when the sky is blue and the sun is shining.  Lightning can travel 14 miles from it’s storm cloud, so you’d better be wary if you hear thunder……especially in Florida.

Before dark, we take a drive around the park at dusk.   You never know what you are going to see from day to day.

Last night what we saw  was a very ugly storm cloud and a lot of lightning.  It’s different every evening.

That’s pretty much been our routine.  It’s amazing how fast the days have passed and our time here in Kissimmee Prairie is quickly coming to and end. 

We’ll be leaving on Sunday and head back to the Tampa area for a few weeks.