Sand Hill Crane, Moss Park, Orange County, FL, 11/11/12
We went out last weekend to break in our new travel trailer. We had originally planned to go to Jetty Park in Cape Canaveral three weeks ago, but Tropical Storm/Hurricane Sandy screwed up those plans for us. She ended up screwing a lot of things for a lot of people, so we’re not complaining too much. Instead we headed out to Moss Park, a local favorite of ours. It’s an Orange County park nestled between Lake Hart and Lake Mary Jane with a relatively recently remodeled campground. New, clean bathrooms, spacious sites and wide roads that are very easy to maneuver on. (Unless, of course, you’re having a heart attack. We were camping here last Presidents Day when I was suffering from what turned out to be my “cardiac event”. I could not back my trailer into an extremely wide site to save my life, even with the help of a kind neighbor. Looking back I was certainly “cognitively impaired” from the event…at least more impaired than normal. Feel free to insert jokes here.)
One of the things we like about this place are the critters that stroll through at all hours of the day. Deer, racoons, armadillos, Fox Squirrels and turtles have all made appearances. The most common critter in the campground is a protected bird: the Sand Hill Crane. They are tall, noisy birds that stroll around their habitat like they own the place which, in a sense, they do. They are protected in Florida and it’s common to see road signs warning of their presence and to find traffic stopped, even on major roads, while they stroll across the street. They are everywhere at Moss Park and we have had many experiences with them. (They also serve the function of an alarm clock, honking to each other VERY LOUDLY at dawn.) This trip I put on one of my better lenses and got some very nice shots.
Oh, we also had a nice weekend roughing it with the new trailer. Sitting outside with a beer in my hand watching the NFL on the HD TV mounted on the side of the Winnebago was out of character for me, but certainly appealing in its own way.
PS: Be sure to click on the pictures to look at them full size. A couple of them are pretty cool.
Sand Hill Crane, Moss Park, Orange County, FL, 11/11/12
Sand Hill Crane, Moss Park, Orange County, FL, 11/11/12
Young Buck, Moss Park, Orange County, FL, 11/11/12
Cruising, Moss Park, Orange County, FL, 11/11/12
Roughing It, Moss Park, Orange County, FL, 11/11/12
The World as We See It 
3 comments
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November 17, 2012 at 2:22 pm
Karen
I don’t know if watching a NFL game on your HD TV is exactly “roughing” it but it is my kind of camping.
November 19, 2012 at 9:37 am
SIS/SIL
Love the shots of the Sand Hill Cranes. They are beautiful and relatively fearless. They’ll come right up to the glass doors of our office building, spot their reflection and stand there honking. After awhile they get bored and spend the afternoon wandering around the parking lot. There are always three of them; I’ve been told that these are adolescents. Typical teenagers, hanging around parking lots.
November 20, 2012 at 4:49 pm
minor catastrophes
Very cool close up of the crane! Wish we could go camp with ya’ll and check out the new camper. Have an awesome weekend with my folks, speaking of impairment 🙂 .