It was a beautiful morning in mid-January when I was at Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park. The woods were full of fall leaves (we usually go right from fall in early January to summer in mid-March).
It had been really cold for 2 weeks so I was hoping to see some wild manatees near the boardwalk and bridge. As I came around the corner on the trail I saw these big floating potatoes right under the shorter bridge. I took these with my phone since they were so close. They were all huddling together to keep warm. The natural springs here keeps the water warmer than the gulf so in the winter they come in and hang out close to the springs. It’s funny to watch them roll over. Did he want a belly rub?
They were all along the boardwalk as well but some of the areas were tough to get a picture of due to the reflections of the trees.
A Mom and her baby swimming by the dock.
A manatee mosh pit.
Just outside the park you can swim with the manatees. There are volunteer park rangers that patrol the area to make sure the manatees stay safe and no one enters the “manatee only” roped off areas along the river. You can see them from the dock inside the park and this ranger had a manatee come up and inspect his kayak.
You can see the fish in the shallow parts of the river. The water here is so clear.
The park also had some flamingos that are fun to watch, even when they are sleeping.
Red foxes are really shy and this one came out from hiding for just a few seconds.
This is a piebald white tailed deer, a rare genetic mutation causing white patches on otherwise brown fur. They are found mostly in northern Florida and less than 2% of the deer population has this. This one was a baby that was abandoned by his Mom and was brought in here to live safely with other deer. I hated taking a picture through the fence but I’ve never seen one in the wild and she was not moving from the fence even though she had a huge place to roam.
Lu, the former actor in movies and tv shows, turned 65 this month. Yes, Lu is a hippo. He is retired and resides at the park. I couldn’t find any specific named movies or shows he was in but one article noted that he was on the Art Linkletter Show which aired in the early 60’s. You can read about him here.
Linking to A Stroll Thru Life.
