Wonderous Wekiva

The above picture is for one of my relations, who several years ago, after seeing all the ospreys, egrets, herons and other large birds on an island on Florida's Gulf Coast,asked, "Aren't there any normal birds in Florida ?" I think she meant small song birds- like this prothonotary warbler.




I had to search the internet to find out what it was. The name was familiar, I likely came upon it in the Great Florida Birding Trail Guide. A name that will stick in your, or a least my head, and now I know what a prothonotary warbler looks like. Now you do to.




It was not the only good bird picture.

The above bird is a swallow tail kite. A much better view than my pic from Saturday at Wekiwa Spring.

I posted another version of trip on Green Wave http://www.clubkayak.com/greenwave/trips.asp?op=showtrip&trip=192
As I wrote there, I was very surprised to see a manatee 3 plus miles from where they usually are found in the Wekiva. This was not any manatee, but one that had been born in captivity and released, into the wild at Blue Spring in February. It is tracked by satellite with a receiver tied to its tail. I reported my sighting to the Wild Tracks project and received this response.

> Hi Dave,> > Thanks for the info on the boy. I will put your> visual into our database. > This is definitely an unusual area for him to be in> because most manatees > don't bother to continue up such shallow waters for> too far of a distance. He > was located today at the 46 bridge so it should be > interesting to see if he > decides to continue south or eventually turn back. > Definitely an explorer!> > Take care, Monica> > ______________________________________> Monica Ross> Research Scientist> Wildlife Trust> (http://www.wildtracks.org/)



Here is a blurry pic of the manatee, named Hurricane, and the satellilte link.



































Lots of alligators, a bald eagle, two huge turkeys. Here's great blue heron in flight.