Sunday, May 28, 2017

Rollin' on the River


After getting the Bus all fixed up in Red Bay we moved on to Florida. We spent a week or so with our friends Denny at Patti at their place north of Panama City.


So good to see them again and catch up on things. Their property is close to 5 acres and they had a spot near the house for us to have a full hookup, which was great.


Our next stop was at RV friends Paul and Helen who live in Inverness, close to Ocala and part of Florida's Nature Coast. Once again we were able to park on Bus on their property and have an electric hookup.


Paul and Helen invited us to take a cruise on the Rainbow River in their boat. The river is fed by a spring so the water was super clear.  Beautiful day for a cruise and lots to see.
Captain Paul at the helm below.


There were numerous cormorants and anhingas. Both put their wings out to dry and are hard to tell apart from a distance. Brian did his research and we learned the difference between the two.
There are several anhingas in the tree below. The female anhinga has a light colored neck, the male's is dark.


A cormorant drying its wings off -


Since anhingas mostly inhabit freshwater we have seen them in Arizona as well as other areas of the country. They have a longer neck than the cormorant, their bill is slender, long and pointed, and they have a long fan-like tail.


Anhingas are also known as the snake bird for the way they look while swimming.


Cormorants are found mostly in coastal waters and rarely fresh water, and have a shorter neck compared to the anhinga, Their bill is long and curved with a sharp hook, and they have a short, stiff tail.


We saw quite a few herons, both hunting and flying.





We saw another bird that was a new one to both of us called a limpkin. It's known as the crying bird because of its weird call which is very distinctive.


I got a kick out of this owl scowling at the anhinga - obviously it wasn't a deterrent in terms of keeping the anhinga off the dock.


There were lots of turtles,

an alligator

otters


and people enjoying the river as well.




3 comments:

  1. First, it was a great pleasure having you as our guests. Second, the Rainbow River cruise is a standard offering to out of state friends, but no one has done such a job of documenting the tour. Sue, your pictures are amazing!! You seemed to capture all the wildlife that was on the river. I love the picture of the otter. Though we have seen otters at that spot several times, it has been difficult to get a good picture. Yours is National Geographic quality, as were most of the rest. Thanks for showing us the river through new eyes.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I just want to say thank you for sharing a great information.I've read a lot of blogs but most of them are boring. Your article made me feel fascinating. I am going to share this information with my friends on social media networking sites!
    Vehicle Scratch Removal

    ReplyDelete