The first Air B&B I stayed in while I was trying to figure out where to settle in Orlando was in Thornton Park. The place I stayed in was o the third floor and looked down Washington Street towards Lake Eola. When I looked the opposite way I could see Falcon bar and Gallery a block away. While walking around the neighborhood, I decided to stop at Cavo’s Bar and Kitchen across the street so I could get a sketch of the Falcon Bar and Gallery. The mural on the side of the building had been done years a go and the paint was starting to fade. The image of a woman hugging a swan seemed iconic at the time.
Today all the swans in Lake Eola have been corralled and moved out of downtown. The swans had developed bird flu and many died. Were the swans to pass the flue to humans there would be the possibility of another pandemic. The swans had clipped wings and therefor could not fly away. It was easy therefor to corral the swans with dozens of kayaks.
There were instanced where police found that swans had been kidnapped. The captured swans were recovered for a backyard of a local home. The birds also suffered from constant harassment and attacks by dogs which ere walked around Lake Eola. The birds were taken to a facility approved by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission in Central Florida. There, they were welcomed by other swans that were also removed from the park. The era of the Lake Eola swans had passed. The swan paddle boats remain as a reminder of the city’s past.