The view from my morning walk at the Safety Harbor waterfront in early April.

It was a weekend morning and Main Street was mostly deserted except for the other early walkers that were stopping for coffee at the local favorite coffee spot.

Pretty black-eyed Susan flowers in front of the hotel next to the fishing pier.

On my way back to the car I looped around the sidewalk along the marina. I noticed two snouts coming up out of the water. I was so excited to see manatees right in front of the sea wall at the entrance to the marina. Manatees were regularly spotted at the end of the fishing pier all year but the pier got wiped out from Hurricane Helene in September and they hadn’t been seen since until recently in the marina. I was lucky to catch them this morning close by.

There were two and I’m thinking they may have been mating. You can see my shadow in the bottom picture and see how close I was to them. I took all of these with my phone.

Above is a quick video of them splashing the surface with their backsides.

One quick shot of the pier before heading home. The city is just starting to replace the pier and repair the damaged marina. The marina parking lot and boat ramp will be closed for at least a year to fix everything. The mangrove boardwalk on the other side of the waterfront should remain open so I’ll have to start my walk from there going forward.