{"id":8412,"date":"2021-04-19T21:04:42","date_gmt":"2021-04-20T01:04:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/flgcc.com\/?p=8412"},"modified":"2026-01-26T10:55:44","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T15:55:44","slug":"lakeland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flgcc.com\/index.php\/2021\/04\/19\/lakeland\/florida\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakeland"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>One of my favorite photo destinations is Lakeland, FL. As the name implies, Lakeland is a city of lakes. According to recent data, there are 38 named lakes in the city. Lakeland is famous for its population of mute swans that are descendants&nbsp;of a pair of swans given to the city by Queen Elizabeth in the 1950s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" src=\"https:\/\/flgcc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/210323-4-mute-swan-chattering.jpg\" alt=\"Mute Swan Chattering\" class=\"wp-image-98011\" srcset=\"https:\/\/flgcc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/210323-4-mute-swan-chattering.jpg 2560w, https:\/\/flgcc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/210323-4-mute-swan-chattering-900x600.jpg 900w, https:\/\/flgcc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/210323-4-mute-swan-chattering-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/flgcc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/210323-4-mute-swan-chattering-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/flgcc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/210323-4-mute-swan-chattering-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/flgcc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/210323-4-mute-swan-chattering-2048x1366.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Mute Swan Chattering<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>On our last visit we encountered the swans on their nests. Many were incubating eggs while some little cygnets had already hatched and were kept protected in enclosures. There were still many ducks around including wood ducks, ring-necked ducks, mallards and ruddy ducks. I had not seen a male ruddy duck for many years. A few white pelicans were also cruising the lake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1708\" src=\"https:\/\/flgcc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/210323-4-ruddy-duck-male-resting-on-lake.jpg\" alt=\"Ruddy Duck Male Resting On Lake\" class=\"wp-image-98859\" srcset=\"https:\/\/flgcc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/210323-4-ruddy-duck-male-resting-on-lake.jpg 2560w, https:\/\/flgcc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/210323-4-ruddy-duck-male-resting-on-lake-900x600.jpg 900w, https:\/\/flgcc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/210323-4-ruddy-duck-male-resting-on-lake-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/flgcc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/210323-4-ruddy-duck-male-resting-on-lake-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/flgcc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/210323-4-ruddy-duck-male-resting-on-lake-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/flgcc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/210323-4-ruddy-duck-male-resting-on-lake-2048x1366.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Male Ruddy Duck Resting on a Lake<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>A few more pictures from this journey are featured below. For a larger selection of photos, go to the galleries listed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/flgcc.com\/index.php\/gary-walker-photography\/galleries\/nature\/birds\/diving-ducks\/\">Diving Ducks<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/flgcc.com\/index.php\/gary-walker-photography\/galleries\/nature\/birds\/geese-and-swans\/\">Geese and Swans<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/flgcc.com\/index.php\/gary-walker-photography\/galleries\/nature\/birds\/wood-ducks\/\">Wood Ducks<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of my favorite photo destinations is Lakeland, FL. As the name implies, Lakeland is a city of lakes. According to recent data, there are 38 named lakes in the city. Lakeland is famous for its population of mute swans that are descendants&nbsp;of a pair of swans given to the city by Queen Elizabeth in&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":98769,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2743],"tags":[2774],"class_list":["post-8412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-florida","tag-nature"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/flgcc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/210323-4-mallard-drake-cruising-along-water.jpg?ver","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flgcc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flgcc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flgcc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flgcc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flgcc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8412"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/flgcc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109163,"href":"https:\/\/flgcc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8412\/revisions\/109163"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flgcc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flgcc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flgcc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flgcc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}