Touring the Local Florida Highlights with Nick and Julie

On their way to a cruise of the (hopefully warm) Caribbean, Nick and Julie came to stay with us for a few days.

On such cold days as we have been having, the manatee come into Blue Springs to avoid hypothermia. Here is a mother with scars on her back and her calf. 

At Winter Park we went for the traditional boat ride of the three lakes. It was sunny but quite chilly in the wind. Although Julie was wrapped up, she was remained chilled for a long time after we returned to New Smyrna. 

The next day we went to Merritt Island where we had a good view of the rocket launch at Cape Canaveral. The rocket is in the upper right of the picture. Below the smoke from the launch is visible.

Sentinel vultures in a tree and...

... an ugly one on the ground.

A cold egret hunched up to keep warm.

Anhinga in the grass.

There were a lot of alligators trying to get some sun to warm themselves.

And here we are... Sandra, Nick, Julie and Paul, hands in pockets to keep warm.

The Florida scrub Jay is the only bird species entirely restricted to the state of Florida. Their scrub habitats are found on Florida's barrier islands. A nesting pair requires about 22 acres of scrub... which is fast dwindling due to development. This scrub jay has an acorn in its mouth.

Because it was low tide, there were a lot of wading birds. Here are Ibis feeding.

Wood storks congregate at our local fish store at closing time each day. Here is one ready to catch its own fish.

The tri-coloured heron has spotted something.

Great blue heron...

and below, roseate spoonbills coming in for a landing.

There were dozens of roseate spoonbills feeding in the ponds, but they were hard to photograph because they were so far away.

Nick and Julie were very patient as I tried again and again to get just the right picture.