Welaka, FL 3.7.10

After watching them load the Manatee, we headed N to Welaka. It’s Sunday morning and the weather is improving. Much warmer.

We have been invited to dinner at Bruce and Kate’s. They have a dock slip they are not using, (their Albin 27’ is in Canada) and we will tie up there for the night.  Carole and Ed of Southern Cross (Albin 25’) will be there also.

The ride across Lake George was fairly smooth.  The wind and current made entering the dock a bit tricky so we opted to tie-up on the outside.

The weather was warm enough for a poolside cookout. Bruce and Kate did a fine job of filling us up, and we all had a great time.

We hooked up to the electric and had heat all night. It cooled down as soon as the sun went down.

Bald Eagles of Silver Glen Springs, FL

I love to watch these Bald Eagles.

Isn’t this tree spectacular?  Jim noticed the moon was still up so we cruised around in the dingy until I could get a picture of it with the Eagles.

A little later I spotted this Eagle in another tree. I almost missed him ..it blended in so well.

One of the original pair moved into the finer branches of the tree…

and then took off….

I’m afraid my fight shots leave a lot to be desired. I’ll keep trying.

3.6.10 Silver Glen Springs

It was a cool night…the generator’s extended run tank kept the heater going and we were fairly warm all night. A lot of foggy mist rising from the water in the morning. I was surprised to find a bit of ice on the boat. I didn’t realize it was that cold overnight.

We anchored where the sun would hit us fairly early and we’d still have phone signal. But…I forgot the angle of the sun had changed in 2 months and a big tree was between us and the sunrise.

 

We like this spot…not just for the phone signal….there are a pair of Bald Eagles that spend a lot of time in the tree near us.

The twisted limbs of the tree and the spanish moss is beautiful and a perfect setting for this big beautiful bird.

Last evening we saw a Manatee in the Springs. We were thrilled. We’ve never seen one in Silver Glen.  We later learned it had been released there. I think it had been in rehabilitation at Sea World for hypothermia. It had been at the springs for over a week.

We took the dingy ashore, paid our fee, and went to the “boil” (spring head) for pictures. On our way over we spotted this Blue Heron sitting on the post that ropes off the area that boats are not allowed to enter.

The pictures are not very good…but you can see it has a tracking device attached to it’s tail. Here it is just coming up for air.

We took the hiking trail out to the “Sand Boils”. A nice walk.

 

They are small springs, but without enough pressure to keep it open and clear the sand….so they appear to “boil”.

We went back to the boat for lunch….around 2pm we headed back to the spring to take more pictures of the Manatee. We waited and waited and still it didn’t surface. A few minutes later we learned it hadn’t surfaced to breathe for over an hour and someone had been called to come check it out….it was dead….they towed it to a nearby boat ramp.

The next morning, as we were  leaving the spring run,  we noticed they were loading it into a small trailer that looks like a sling.

It looks like it’s resting. I heard there were over 300 lost this year to hypothermia. I guess the waters cooled down too fast for them to all reach the warmer spring waters.

They are beautiful animals. We were sorry to lose this one.