Blue Spring State Park

Phil and I spent a week at Blue Spring State Park. I was welcomed by this guy who suctioned himself to my window. I'm glad he was on the outside!

Blue Spring is better known for its manatee. They come in from the St. Johns River to enjoy the warmer water.

We didn't see any tiny babies, but there were some younger ones hanging on to Mama.

The first few days there were very warm, so the manatee were scarce. But the last couple days were cooler, which resulted in a lot of manatee, especially in the morning.

This group came down the river together. They must have been a group of juveniles having a great time goofing off.

And not all the manatee were in the water!

We went kayaking on one of our first days there.

The black vultures were all standing around just waiting for us to make a mistake.

We paddled around the lagoon, and saw quite a few birds, including this Egret -

And this Great Blue Heron.

I tried to take a selfie with the first alligator I saw, but I clearly need more practice. The alligator is on the far right.

There he is!

Just about that time, the park tour boat came by, and the rest of our WIN group was on it!

The next day we took the free passenger ferry over to Hontoon Island State Park, and did a hike on their nature trail.

We didn't see too many animals, but there was a lot of interesting fungus.

There is lots to see in the area, so there'll be another post on Blue Spring.