Haulover Canal

Two dolphins in Haulover Canal, Sunday May 4, 2008. There were three, but I did not get a good trio picture. Here is a so-so picture of the troika.















Trust me, three dorsal fins are visible. If you can blow up the picture, that helps.





As you know, Haulover Canal means manatees.















If, you didn't know, welcome to Dave's Yak Tales. I saw 5 or so in Bairs Cove, 1 in the Mosquito Lagoon, just north of the east end of the Canal, another at the opposite, Indian River entrance.

All pic so far, including the dolphins, were taken in, or just outside Bairs Cove. Here is an aquatic mammal I saw out of the Cove, in the sheltered area just east of the Lagoon.

"Reddish egrets 'dance' in the shallows". The quote is from the Great Florida Birding Trail Guide, describing the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge. This bird was doing just what the guide described.

The photo is post-dance. The hoping about, wings flapping, flushed a fish which was stabbed and swallowed.

Seems like every Haulover trip I get the bird on the Nesting Area sign shot. Sometimes osprey or gull, this time cormorant.

And the always popular pelican on the Manatee Zone look.

I deleted a fuzzy picture of a cormorant and pelican on a Manatee Zone sign. Here a couple old favorites.

From a distance, this smoke plume looked dangerously close to the Vehicle Assembly Building. The vehicles being the Space Shuttle.

Not to worry. On the way home, I saw a sign. USFWS Controlled Burn. USFWS is the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. I soon drove past the blaze, which was being carefully monitored by at least 10 vehicles, the occupants on the fire line.



My three hour visit to Haulover Canal, much of which was spent floating, viewing wildlife, was the perfect day after the hard 14 mile, all day trip to Juniper Creek.