We were woken fairly early by our neighbours preparing for their next fishing trip and actually I’m quite glad as when I opened the curtains I was greeted by two Sandhill Cranes; rubbish photos as it was still barely light. We’ve never seen them before but I knew immediately what they were as I’d seen pictures.
It seemed to be gathering Spanish Moss, presumably to line its nest.
Quite handsome birds.
Walking down to the edge of the lake it was rather misty all around.
This Great Blue Heron was standing on one of the piers as we approached.
But of course promptly flew off.
We stopped by the motel's office to settle up and asked if there was a walk we could do along the side of the lake but apparently not as the place is crawling with alligators.
Having had no response from Avis about the car documentation we set about finding a local office and it turned out there was one in the Walmart just 10 mins from us. The chap said he wasn't able to do much about the state of the vehicle (there were numerous scratches and marks on it and we'd failed to check it in our haste to finally get going last night) but he could print out the correct documentation for us - phew, relief, at least we’re legal!
We drove into nearby DeLand for a wander around. This town started up in the mid 1870s and was named after a baking soda magnate.
The central dome was particularly lovely.
I'd heard of Ma Baker only through the 1977 Boney M song of the same name. Although I've not listened to it in many years I presume it tells this same story.
One of the many courtrooms.
The theatre house was a particularly lovely building.
DeLand is considered to be one of the best examples of "Old Town" America.
Had it been a couple of hours later we might have stopped here for lunch.
There are numerous murals around.
Rather a posh street ashtray.
It was a pleasant enough town but not really "old" by UK standards and therefore of rather limited interest to us.
We then drove to a nearby Walmart and picked up some sandwiches for lunch which we ate in a local nature preserve (not reserve as we'd call it here). Unfortunaely there wasn't much at all to see.
These two are a species of hawk (possibly Red Shouldered).
I haven't been able to confidently identify the next two so far.
Florida Scrub Lizard
Back at the motel it was a glorious late afternoon and so we took a bottle of wine down to the lake edge and enjoyed some February sunshine whilst watching the birdlife.
This Anhinga was just about to take off but it looks like it was having a stretch.
And probably the same heron as this morning as they tend to hang around the same areas.
Boat-tailed Grackle
Wood Stork
Back at our room for dinner and then we sat outside on the balcony for a while. The fishing guys were all sitting outside their 3 cabins and two of them had guitars and started playing. One guy was either completely blind or severely sight impaired but he was a fabulous musician and had the most amazing singing voice; so instead of being slightly miffed that our peace was being shattered, we thoroughly enjoyed listening. So much so that after 15 mins or so I asked them if they'd mind us moving closer - they happily made room for us and it was gone midnight before we left them to it. One of those great, impromptu evenings.