A Day At Blue Springs

I decided to take the Nikon to Blue Springs State Park, which is about a 45 minute drive from my house. I read on the Web that you can see manatees there. You can see why they call it Blue Springs. After cold snaps you are more apt to see the manatees because they come to the spring to warm in its constant 72-degree waters. The spring pours out millions of gallons a day feeding the St. Johns River. I figured I might see a few manatees since we had a cold snap a day before. I was amazed at how many I did see - more than I could count. If fact, if you double click this picture, you can see a couple below the blue waters. For a little fun, I came with my fishing rod and gear and asked the first park ranger I saw if it was legal to fish for manatee with live bait. She didn't seem amused at all and kept a close eye on me the whole time I was there. I also kept telling park-goers that manatee are "good eatin'". Again, people didn't get the humor.
Anyway, all jokes aside, Blue Springs is a special place, so check it out!
Remember Double Click the picture to see it bigger.

Clear Waters

The waters were so clear that it was pretty easy to get clear shots. Remember, you can double click to see bigger images.

Mamma's Milk

Here is a little one nursing.

Mother And Child

Here is a quick video of the manatee family from the above photo.

Snort

I think you can see the spray as this one came up from air. You could hear their snorts well.

Wrinkle Nose

Shake, Rattle and Roll

There was this sandy area the manatees really seemed to like. Now I don't claim to be an educated man, and I am certainly not a entomologist, but my observation of this area makes me think they like to roll over and over in this sand because it is good for their skin. There must have been 10 or more manatees in this area rolling.

Let's Party

I believe the manatees see Blue Springs as their Las Vegas. They just seem to be having a party. Here they are enjoying that sandy area. You can overhear that the people seem to be having pretty good time too! What happens at Blue Springs, stays in...

Let

Just Look At Those Eyes

You Gotta A Purty Mouth

Ewok Village

You can walk the length on the spring on a raised wooden path. It reminds me of that Ewok village in Star Wars.

Belly Roll

As I said before, it just looks like the manatees are having a ball in that spring water. Here's one giving a playful belly roll for us.

Gars Everywhere

While there were more manatees than you could count, there even more gar fish. Here's one.

Scars

You always hear about manatees run in with boats. You can see evidence of it here in the white scares on this girls back.

Standing Tall

This bird kept his post on this log the whole time I was at the park.

Palm Fan

There were huge palm fans everywhere. Very nice.

All Lined Up

Here were a few birds warming up in the sun.

Gator Time

This was the lone gator that I saw during the visit. A little blury, but I was taking shot shot from a pretty long distance.

Follow The Leader

I'll leave you with a little video of the manatees playing follow the leader. Blue Springs is a cool place - you should check it out! As I mentioned before there were gar fish everywhere. I don't know if you can see it, but the dark streaks in the video are all gar fish.