The Urban Rookery

The whole concept of a bird rookery is relatively new to me, so I could have been around these bird-nesting magnets my whole life and not realized it. A bird rookery is an area where more than one pair of birds nest in a group. One of the most unique that I know of is on a small island just south of downtown Orlando in Lake Lucerne. It is within feet of the off ramp from SR 408 (or what old time Orlandoans know as the East-West Expressway.)

At this time of year the young birds are much older than the ones I saw at Gatorland, most of them appeared to be able to fly. They don't, however, seem to want to stray far from their nests and my guess is they may still be receiving meals from their parents.

The small island is full of tri-colored herons, great egrets, snowy egrets and ibis. In a nearby Cypress tree are some young Anhinga and it seems like the island can't hold all of the quickly maturing birds anymore, so they populate the trees along the lake's shoreline too. I was unable to see any nests, I'm guessing they must be wall-to-wall on the island's interior where I can't see. There is much commotion constantly as birds jockey for position and birds are flying in and out constantly. The worst thing about the place is the smell of guano; it will knock you over. After I left I swore I could still smell it.

But overall I'm once again amazed by this little patch of wilderness in the middle of an urban environment. And after the media barrage of birds covered in oil in the gulf, it is nice to see these cute fledglings with the last bit of down on their heads, trying to muster up the courage to go out in the world on their own.

A Family Mystery

I noticed recently that the Tire Kingdom store on East Colonial Street in Orlando was vacant, one of many empty commercial properties found in Central Florida these days. This particular building is of interest to me because it was built by my in-laws in the late sixties to house their business, Schmidt Motor Sales. In fact you can still see the hexagonal shapes where the seven letters of "SCHMIDT" were placed under the roof's support beams.

I'm told at one time they utilized buildings on three of the four corners of this intersection: one building housed automobile sales, (British imports Morris, MG, Austin and Austin-Healy), the building in the photograph housed motorcycle sales, (BMW and Triumph), and one other building was for service or parts. I also know that this location on Colonial was preceded by several others including a structure the Schmidts built on Fairbanks Avenue in Winter Park across from where PR's Mexican Restaurant is today. And I know that the in the early days of the business they sold Indian Motorcycles, and I have great images of my wife's grandfather in front of his shop with the wonderful Indian script logo on the front. But I know very little else.

When I ask for more information, my Mother-in-Law defers me to her brother who ran the business after her father. Her brother doesn't want to talk about the business because it brings up painful memories and I want to be respectful and accommodate his wish to leave it alone. But I really want to know more about their family business and its place in Central Florida History. Stay tuned...

Another Panhandle Treasure: Panama City Goofy Golf

Near the top of my list of Florida's vintage roadside attractions is Panama City's Goofy Golf, because it is mostly intact in its original 1959 form. As these 1960s pictures from the State Archives show, many of the hole features remain unchanged today, only with new paint colors. Goofy Golf was the brainchild of Lee Kopin, who built courses in Ft. Walton Beach and Pensacola further down the panhandle, as well as in Texas, Nevada and California. There's a Sphinx, a blue Easter Island head, a bizarre tiki, a golden buddha, a rocketship, dinosaurs and much, much more. I could go on and on but words don't do the place justice. You truly have to see it for yourself.

Click to enlarge

Panhandle on the brain: Panama City, FL

I just read that the oil spill is just seven miles from the beaches of Florida's panhandle. Another article on the Sentinel website lists lists the top ten beaches in the US and the authority who created the list would not add a beach from the panhandle because of the threat of the oil spill. Past panhandle best beach winners include St. Joseph Peninsula in Port St. Joe in 2002, St. Andrews State Park in Panama City in 1995, and Grayton Beach State Park in Santa Rosa Beach in 1994.

I went into the Visual Ephemera archives and found these images from a late summer trip to the panhandle I took with Mrs. Ephemera in 2006. We stayed in Appalachicola and Panama City and despite it being the hottest time of the year, we had a wonderful time exploring what has now been re-branded as "Florida's Great Northwest." Here are a few memories of that brief excursion.





Much of the beachfront of the "Redneck Riviera" has been lost to giant condo towers, but we found a nice little motel that had been slightly "boutique-ified" located a block off the beach. As we are not sun worshipers, (just yesterday the dermatologist warned me to "stay out of the sun"), we mostly visited the beach in the morning or in the early evening. The beaches of the panhandle are known for their sugar like color and consistency and Panama City's beaches were, at that time, pretty gorgeous.

We explored the great little downtown area and found lots of antique stores and the wonderful Martin Theatre built in 1936 (originally as the Ritz Theatre.)

The strip along the beach has some of my all time favorite kitschy Florida roadside icons, which will be explored further in future posts. My heart is with all the folks in the panhandle whose lively hood depends on those beautiful beaches, the turquoise waters and the critters living beneath the waters. After being battered by hurricanes and the collapse of the real estate market, I'm guessing things are already pretty tough up there. I wish them the strength to endure this next challenge to their local economy.