Tag Archives: shelduck

Two lakes in downtown.

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One of the black necked swans.

A black swan working on a nest.

A young mute swan.

A young and an old wood stork.

One of the shelducks at Lake Mirror.

A pied grebe hiding in the reeds,

Cormorants and anhingas drying off in the sun. The first bird in the top picture is an anhinga. The rest are cormorants. Anhingas have a straight beak and spear their fish. Cormorants have a curved beak and hook their fish.

Threes a crowd.

All taken at Lake Morton and Lake Mirror in downtown Lakeland. The small lakes are just a few minutes apart so it’s easy to do quick walks around both before heading home.

“Don’t play with your food.”

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Before heading home for lunch, I decided to stop by Lake Mirror in downtown Lakeland to see if there was anything new there. I got out of the car and saw the above ibis trying to gulp down that frog.  He kept walking around, trying to keep the other ibis from stealing it. It finally headed around a building so I didn’t see him eat it.

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The mandarin duck couple were sleeping under a tree. The male peaked at me for a second and then went back to sleep.

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One of the shelducks stood up to stretch but then plopped back down and went back to sleep. Since all of the critters around the small lake were napping I headed home for lunch and a nap too.

Cute and cool at the lake.

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What is it about little ducklings that are so cute???

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Even hybrid mallards are cute when they are sleeping.

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The wood duck is just cool, posing for me.

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Another cool duck, the shelduck is not native to Florida. The city of Lakeland bought them for the downtown lake.

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Even grackles eat fish.

The usual things sleeping and floating around Lake Mirror.

Our World Tuesday Graphicimage-in-ing

Crazy ducks in downtown Lakeland

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Lake Mirror has some crazy ducks living there. They get so excited when someone walks towards them with a bag of bread. Look out or you’ll get run over. If you are standing close to them and not paying attention (meaning looking through your camera viewfinder at something else) they will bang on your shoe with their beak. I try to keep my distance because they can be very aggressive if you don’t have food.