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Spring, 2004! Mom and Dad managed to escape the long and cold Wisconsin
winter and spend some time basking in the Florida sunshine. Of course, the
first night they were here the temps were in the 30s and all good Floridians
were wearing their parkas, while mom and dad and all the other northerners were
changing into shorts and hawaiian shirts! Well, the weather did warm
up...into record setting temps in the 80s for a number of days. Here are
some of the pictures
Click on the picture to see the full size pic!
| Saturday, March 6, Trip to
Blue
Springs State Park |
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Mom and Dad, shortly after our arrival at Blue Springs
State Park, near Orange City, about 15 miles north of my house. |
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Yes, thatis a manatee, the main attraction at Blue
Springs on cold days. It was in the 80s the day we visited, and this was
the lone manatee. In very cold weather in the winter, up to 180
manatees come to the springs seeking the warmer water |
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Relaxing along the board walk. |
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Dad, soaking up some sun. |
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Mom, soaking up some sun. |
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Mom and Dad on the tour boat. We took a two hour tour of
the St. John's river area. The next few pictures are a glimpse of
some of the abundant wildlife we saw. |
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A Little Blue Heron, watching us...or watching out for
gators.... |
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Turtles. We saw hundreds of turtles, perched on
logs, enjoying the sun |
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Mom is getting an up close picture of this gator, about
10 or so |
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The picture does not do this justice. This was a VERY
BIG gator....very big. Over 12 feet, at least...and huge, just
plain huge. |
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Another bird in a tree, but for the life of me, I can't
remember what it is! |
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Another very large gator. We saw several dozen
gators of all sizes, from about 4 feet on up. Gators do not like
each other much (except for eating and mating), and so they are usually
seen in ones (alone). |
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A Great Blue Heron. We say hundreds of birds, and quite
a few of these, too. |
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Another pic of Mom and Dad on the boat. |
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I had to try this, picture of the three of us, taken by
me. Turned out OK, I guess |
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Cypress knees (the little things sticking up) along the
banks of the rivers. Before people came by and logged these areas
years ago, there were trees up to 21 feet in diameter here, some
thousands of years old. Now there are few large ones as
Cypress are very slow growing. Progress?? |
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An Osprey, waiting for its mate. Ospreys mate for life.
The male builds the nest, the female rearranges it and lays the eggs.
After the youngsters leave, the pair split, then meet up again the next
year, same time, same place, to have another batch of young. |
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