Flamingo Gardens [D]

Flamingo Gardens

Flamingo Gardens

Flamingo Gardens

Flamingo Gardens

Flamingo Gardens

Golden Silk Spider (Nephila clavipes) - Flamingo Gardens The Golden Silk Spider is a large orange and brown spider with feathery tufts on its legs and is well known to most native southerners. It is a is a species of the golden orb-web spider. The web of a mature female can reach one meter in width, the yellow threads appearing as a rich gold in sunlight. As is typical with most spiders, there is little real danger from an encounter with the golden silk spider. The spider will bite only if held or pinched, and the bite itself will produce only localized pain with a slight redness, which quickly goes away.

Flamingo Gardens

Flamingo Gardens

Flamingo Gardens

Flamingo Gardens

Shortleaf Fig (Ficus citrifolia) - Flamingo Gardens This is one of several Champion Trees at Flamingo Gardens. A Champion Tree is one that is judged to be the largest of its species according to a standard measuring formula. This formula is a point system based on trunk circumference + Height + 1/4 Average Crown Spread. To be eligible, a tree must be native to or naturalized in the continental United States, including Alaska (not Hawaii).

Bougainvillea - Flamingo Gardens

Flamingo Gardens What lives or lived here????

Shortleaf Fig (Ficus citrifolia) - Flamingo Gardens This is one of several Champion Trees at Flamingo Gardens. A Champion Tree is one that is judged to be the largest of its species according to a standard measuring formula. This formula is a point system based on trunk circumference + Height + 1/4 Average Crown Spread. To be eligible, a tree must be native to or naturalized in the continental United States, including Alaska (not Hawaii). [D]

Shortleaf Fig (Ficus citrifolia) - Flamingo Gardens [D]

Shortleaf Fig (Ficus citrifolia) - Flamingo Gardens [D]

Croton (Codiaeum variegatum) Crotons with their colorful, glossy foliage and variation of leaf types are one of the most popular plants in Florida. It is a native of the tropics from Java to Australia and the South Sea Islands, and because of the Crotons' susceptibility to cold injury, is restricted to the southern and warmer parts of central Florida.

American Kestrel (Falco sparverius) [male] - Flamingo Gardens The smallest and most common falcon, the American Kestrel is usually found in close proximity to open fields, either perched on a snag or telephone wire or hovering in search of prey. In winter in many southern parts of the range, female and male American Kestrels use different habitats. The female uses the preferred more open habitat, and the male uses areas with more trees. This situation appears to be the result of the females migrating south first and establishing winter territories. The males then are forced into the less preferred areas.

Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii) - Flamingo Gardens Cooper’s Hawks live in dense canopied evergreen and deciduous forests or in riparian zones [interface between land and a river or stream] throughout southern Canada and the continental United States. The hawks in the northern part of their range will migrate as far south as Central America. They are among the bird world’s most skillful fliers. The Cooper’s Hawk can eat an amount of food equivalent to 12% of the bird’s body weight in one day. This is similar to a 120-pound person eating almost 14 pounds of food or 24 pounds of food if you weigh 200 pounds. Males build the nest, then provide nearly all the food to females and young over the next 90 days before the young fledge. In the fall, the female Cooper’s Hawk migrates south before the male, but in the spring the male’s migration north precedes the female’s migration.

Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii) - Flamingo Gardens

Short-tailed Hawk (Buteo brachyurus) The Short-tailed Hawk is an American bird of prey in the family Accipitridae, which also includes the eagles and Old World vultures. As a member of the genus Buteo, it is not a true hawk and thus also referred to as a "buteo." This dimorphic (occurring in two distinct forms --> a light, almost white, morph and a dark morph) buteo occupies a great variety of habitats within its large tropical range. It has a small population in Florida (and also Arizona and possibly Texas), where it inhabits mangrove forests, cypress swamps, pine savannas, and mixed woodlands, especially near water. This species, once rarely seen perched and considered shy in Florida, is either increasing or becoming more tolerant of humans, as it is now a relatively common sight in southern Florida. [D]

Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii)

Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) - Flamingo Gardens One of the largest birds of prey in North America, and known to many as the "Fish Hawk," the Osprey eats almost exclusively fish. The Osprey family contains only one species and it is one of the most widespread birds in the world, found on all continents except Antarctica.