So, here we are in Southern Florida on my annual trip to the Sunshine State. This is an amazing part of the world and I love it. So much to see and photograph, so much to explore and discover. Imagine my surprise and excitement this morning when I had my very best encounter with a Florida Manatee. The trip to get here had been almost traumatic including delays and a final arrival at gone 2 in the morning after 28 hours traveling. So in spite of wanting to get out and rediscover old haunts it was with bleary eyes and severe Jet-Lag that we went to the beach area of Davie close to the John Lloyd State Park. There is a creek that links to the inter-coastal waterway. I have seen Raccoon here in the past and it is just a nice interesting little bit of water. I casually approached this morning, not expecting to see much Suddenly there it was, very close to the sand, in fact 6 feet from me ……………… a young Manatee slowly and casually moving in the very shallow water. After getting over the shock I waited and watched for it to lift it's head out of the water and when it did, well… what a thrill! I watched for half an hour or so and got good photos including the one above. I think it was a calf because it was perhaps smaller than I would have expected an adult to be, apparently 10 feet long and 1200 lbs. I would estimate this animal, one of only 3000 surving and an endangered species, as around 6 foot.  I have discovered that Manatee move in to shallow water during cooler spells and currently even though it is around 70f we  are in such a cold snap. We will definitely go back tomorrow at the same time in the hope of seeing it again when the conditions are similar.

Without looking we have seen almost all the birds that I expect to see here including Loggerhead Shrike, Osprey, White Ibis and Royal Tern to name but a few.