IcarusPassion

Dawn and I had a really nice time on the Little Manatee River yesterday, although it was hot. I mean, it was really, really hot. Florida in July. No breeze. And no canopy for the most part. One thing that saved us from the heat a little was a big storm that rolled in toward the end of our trip. So we did have some nice clouds for the last hour or so.

The Little Manatee river has a pretty good flow to it also, so you really don't even have to paddle. We took both cars, so we just floated down river and enjoyed the scenery. Not much of a workout! But after Dawn's last month, I don't think she needs a work out.

Little Manatee is quite different from what Dawn and I have seen so far. The river banks, especially where we put in, are very high. In that respect, it almost didn't seem like Florida. And the other thing that was different was the reddish tint to much of the water -- especially where it was shallow and the sun was shining openly. The red contrast to the green foliage was quite nice, and I found myself wishing that I'd brought a wide angle lens to capture it.

Speaking of pictures, a hot summer day at noon really isn't the best time to look for nature pictures. For one thing, the wildlife tends to be most active in the morning and in the evening when it's cooler. Second, the bright sun can make some bird shots just impossible -- the bright feathers "blow out," and there isn't anything to you can do. And of course, the bright, contrasty sunlight doesn't make for great pictures in general.

We found a couple families of turtles in the shade, however. I've seen plenty of turtles sunning themselves, but I've never seen a whole group like we saw yesterday.



I felt bad taking their picture, because we ended up scaring just about everything we came across. (Not supposed to do that.) But I don't think we could have gotten around most of them at all without scaring them. The wildlife on this river was generally much more cautious that what we've encountered in the past. You can really tell that the Little Manatee doesn't get as much "traffic" as other rivers.



Dawn caught sight of this flower fairy. I think that's what you call them. She was really busy with this flower, like a little hairstylist with wings.



Tack-sharp at 600mm from a moving Kayak. Baby.



Of course, we saw a few gators as always. Like everything else, they were very shy and usually got in the water well before we were passing. Towards the very end of our trip however, we came across a little guy that was really interesting in that he was covered in dirt and weeds. Usually the alligators are pretty clean when they're sunning themselves, but the water around this guy wasn't exactly clear.



I'm posting a crop to better show what I'm taking about; a small jpg on Blogger really doesn't do it justice. Later Dawn was doing young alligator-impersonations: "Mom says I should clean better than I do. But she's not here right now, and I'm tired..."



Back to work for me! Dawn just called and she's on the way home with Carly. Have to get the guest room ready and there is furniture to be moved.