Silver Springs State Park, Silver Springs, Florida
The father of a righteous child has great joy; a man who fathers a wise son rejoices in him. ~ Proverbs 23:24
HAPPY 84TH BIRTHDAY TO BLAINE’S DAD, RON! Of all the people I know, Ron has one of the biggest hearts! He’s so loving and kind and full of all kinds of knowledge and experiences. Thank you for raising an exceptional son, and for being a terrific father-in-law! (Joan, you’ll have to tell him, since I know he doesn’t read the blog. 😊)
This is the third and final time for us to be on the Silver River, so of course we were searching for the big game – monkeys and manatees. The alligators are fun too. And the turtles. And the variety of birds. And just the beauty of the river – along the shore and the bed itself.
And this is the third time we’ve entered the river in a different way. Today, we parked in the lot by the campground dock. The place where we have to carry the boat for ½ mile. And today, my husband decided to pull out and used his Code of Chivalry membership card.
He carried the kayak all by himself.
Just look at my big strong chivalrous man!
Meanwhile, I wore both life jackets and carried the paddles and lunch cooler. It worked pretty well!
I mentioned close encounters with birds, and there were plenty of those today! But we were also really close to a few alligators, a snake and . . . .
The manatees! This is the third day we’ve seen them!
More on the manatees later. First we had to get to today’s lunch spot. . . .
And we’re off!
We went downstream for a bit first – in search of monkeys, but no luck today.
An osprey!
We got excited for just a second when we spotted the white head and immediately thought, “Eagle!”
But an osprey sighting is still really cool!!
And then there’s this guy. He was in the water. We knew he was fishing, and then he came up with a whopper!
I can’t believe Blaine was able to get his phone out and capture this!
Don’t they wriggle around in their stomachs? Ewww! What a feeling that must be!
We have lift off!
That’s a Wood Stork.
They’re quite large.
When we first spotted him, he was headed straight for us and much lower!
This is a juvenile ibis. They’re brown and gradually turn white as they age.
And we discovered that this is a female Anhinga.
They have these beautifully tanned necks and heads, instead of black.
See there! Even in the animal kingdom, the males prefer tanned female bodies! : )
Another Double-Crested Cormorant.
Note the stunning aquamarine eyes!
Each time we’ve been by here, it seems the same “family” is here . . .
A large alligator (just out of the frame today), a Great Blue Heron, and 3-4 turtles. : )
We’re parking there for lunch today.
That green canopied boat is the 90-minute glass-bottom boat tour. It’s a different type of boat.
We carefully ran up on that log to anchor.
Can you believe this Green Heron stuck around?!?
And yes, we’re just about that close!
Look at the amazing details on this bird!
God is a spectacular Creator!
We ate with a green heron, three alligators, and two turtles (there were originally more, but the rest abandoned ship when we approached 😊) and unbeknownst to us until we were leaving, a large snake! What a terrific spot!
And here we are.
Can you spot the two turtles, a green heron and three alligators?
This baby was originally on the log with the turtles, but wandered off as we approached. He didn’t go far though. : )
Look what we spotted as we turned around to leave!
It’s a Brown Watersnake.
They’re non-venomous, grow to 3 1/2 – 5 1/2 feet long and give birth to live young.
They’re sometimes mistaken for a Cottonmouth.
Right after lunch was our first manatee encounter.
Our first manatee of the day.
And then – – the excitement really began! There were three of them languidly rolling around in the water and over each other. Some said it looked like mating behavior, but others said no. Plus, I checked on-line and mating season doesn’t generally begin until Spring, or occasionally as early as March. So who knows, but it was exciting to be there and see them like this!
I shot 40 pictures and 4 videos in seven minutes! But I cut it to 22 pictures and 2 videos. 😊 And then I stopped and just enjoyed the moment. We sat there for 20-25 minutes just watching them frolic. There was a woman with us who had a go-pro on a stick, so I’ll bet she got some great underwater footage! She told us this didn’t look like mating she’d seen before and also commented that this was a really rare opportunity. God is soooo very good to us!
Oh my! How very blessed we are today!!!
That’s the woman with the go-pro.
Eventually, we moved on to the Silver River Spring Head. Between the breeze and the glass-bottom boats moving around, the views weren’t clear today, but I think the pictures are still beautiful!
This is the area where they filmed “Sea Hunt”.
That’s actually a good ways under the water!
These next few pictures were taken at the Head Spring.
Aren’t they beautiful?
Even the side of the Spring is pretty!
We did the paddle trail again, mostly so we could get out and stretch our legs. We have yet to figure out why sitting in a kayak for hours at a time becomes so uncomfortable, but I think the key is “sitting for hours at a time”. 😊
Heading onto the Fort King paddling trail.
Blaine thought we had enough pictures of herons, but I disagree.
I like this with the buildings in the background. : )
We returned to the cove where we last saw the manatees, and they were still there! This time, we sat next to another couple with their dog. That dog was so cute, trying to figure out those things in the water! It whined a couple of times, but surprisingly never barked, although it did think about jumping into the water a couple of times. 😊
This time, I took 20 pictures in 20 minutes and three videos. And this time, I cut it down to 9 and 2.
This couple is from Seattle and this is their first time on the Silver River.
What a treat they had!
Very nice, friendly people.
Not everyone who came to watch was. . . .
And we were surprised by how many only stayed for a minute or two!
And again, we sat in awe and watched for at least 30 minutes before heading home.
On the way, we heard a bunch of monkeys screeching, but we never saw them, and while we sat with Blaine holding onto a tree to keep us from floating away, we watched 6 more manatees swimming around in the river. They were too far away to take pictures though.
A blessedly wonderful way to end our time on Silver River! We enjoyed the kinds of days where Romans 1:20 has been especially evident! For since the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities – His eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
When you can get up-close-and-personal with these marvelous creatures (of all kinds), how can anyone even consider that it’s all random and there is no God?
Thank you God, for the teeniest glimpse!