Trip to Blue Springs to see Manatee

there was a lot of beautiful scenery along the walk



A mother and her two calves






two fish resting on a manatee's back





the Plantation House on the property




Today we went over to Blue Springs park in Orange City to see the manatee.
They migrate from the river to the springs when it gets colder since the temperature in the spring is always a nice and warm 72*.  However, they are vegetarians and plants will not grow in the springs so they need to drift back out to the river for their food.  Even though we only saw a handful of manatee- the walk along the spring was gorgeous... and it was a beautiful 70 - 75 degree day


 
***Added next day - according to the morning paper, there were 270 manatee in the springs yesterday - but that was in the morning when the temperature was cooler.  By afternoon(when we were there), it had warmed up significantly and most of the manatee had drifted back out to the river.