Day Five ~ Blue Springs State Park

Warning!

Long post, with lots of pictures, 39 to be exact!!

A pretty sunrise to wake-up to! (picture taken by Daddy)

First we walked around a bit while we waited for the time to come for the boat ride. While we were on the boat ride we saw LOTS of Birds, Turtles, and we saw...

56 Alligators in all!!!! :-).

Here is a little bit about Blue Springs State Park:

“Blue springs is designated an official state natural feature.
It is the largest spring on the St. John’s river.
Each day, about 100 million gallons flow from the spring to the river between the evergreen banks of Blue Springs Run.
In winter, manatees move out of the cold St. John’s into the warm 72 F water of the Run.
The clarity of the spring water allows people to view, without disturbing this unique gathering of endangered species.”
~~~~

After the boat ride we ate our picnic lunch (sandwiches and chips :-))

after we ate we walked around some more.

Then we watched a short movie about Manatees, then we left.

A bunch of Anhingas

(aka 'The Snake Birds' 'cause they swim under water to catch there fish and when they stick there heads up out if the water they look like snakes)

The Manatees (it was not a very good day for manatees though, we only saw about 10 or so) This is a female Anhinga, Alligators, Birds, and Turtles on the other hand were VERY abundant! :-)

A small flock of White Ibis,

A young Great Blue Heron,

A large fallen tree,

A young gator,

Three young gators,

A male Anhinga,

A Great Blue Heron,

Another small flock of Ibis,

A Wood Stork, they are a endangered

species, and we saw 2 or 3 of them ;-),

2 young gators taking a

nap together :-),
Another Great Blue Heron,
A Snowy Egret,

And this big fella weighs 700 to 800 lbs and is around 14 feet long!

(he is the biggest gator they have right now, they did have one that was about 16 feet long!)

The water line on the trees,

A friendly Squirrel, eating lunch with us :-)

A Great Cormorant.

Photography by Me :-)