Three Lakes WMA near Orlando

The Prairie Lakes Unit of the Three Lakes Wildlife Management Area near Orlando is known to be a bald eagle nesting area.  Before heading down there I read there were some 150 nests!  I knew we would not see a lot of nests but sure hoped we would be able to spot a few.  It is a big area.

Our count ended up being 5 eagles spotted and 2 nests but we also saw other wildlife of course.  One of the nests was in a tree right next to the road and mom eagle gave me a great sequence of shots.

 We have friends, Stewart and DeeAnn, in Orlando and Stewart had the day off and was able to join us.  Here are Mike and Stewart pondering our route through the area.

beautiful but where are the tall trees and eagles nests??

of course there are alligators

wetland birds kept popping up here and there for an appearance

Ahh, a nest in a tree conveniently right next to the road,  do I see a white head??

after watching her for a bit she
decided to call for her mate
and hopped up on top of the
nest....

took a good look at us......

and started looking around and
calling for her mate.

then she took off to the other
side of the open field and met
up with him.....

where they hung out for a few minutes and had a nice chat

then she returned to the nest....

....and settled herself back in

moore hen

 We came across this large soft shell snapping turtle quite a ways from the lake and were a little worried about her but no touching!

On the way back from the lake we found the turtle half buried in the sand keeping cool we figured.

I almost walked into a large web with this banana spider in the middle!

on the way out of the area I took this pic of a nest across a large field....

when I looked at the pic at home I saw the eagle!

Just outside the WMA we came across sandhill cranes and caracaras in the same field!

the pair of caracaras were
collecting building material




for their nest in this nearby palm

after our adventure, we met up with DeeAnn and enjoyed trivia night at the Crooked Can Brewery