We canoed about 2 miles up and then back on the Loxahatchee River at Jonathan Dickinson State Park. I'm still constantly in awe of all the different animals that live in Florida, and this trip did not fail. There was of coarse the usual assortment of strange birds, and we saw quite a few gators. (Even one that were pretty sure was about 10 feet!)
One of the little guys
Another of my favorite observations was a brother sister pair who was trying to canoe together. The parents were in one canoe (smart move on their part) and the middle school aged children were in another. The brother seemed to be having a good time slamming the canoe into his parents and into the thick mangrove area to the loud complaints of his sister who sat in the front.
Once we were in a quieter area I paid more attention to some of the sounds of all the animals. More than once I was quite scared of some kind of large fish that plunged below the surface as we canoed on. (Seriously, it was a loud noise and I think Jaws may have been swimming with us...anyway). We heard this weird noise that could have been a breeze in the trees, but it sounded like it was coming from the water. David suggested that he thought the sound was a manatee or turtle coming up for air. I knew that there could be manatees in this river, but the water was fairly low so my expectation of seeing one wasn't even something I considered. We kept a lookout for a few more seconds a looked in the area where the sound came from. Lo and behold, after waiting for just a little a manatee nose popped up for air! The nose was followed by the little bump of its body as it dove down and a small splash from its tail.
We canoed along with the manatee (at a distance) for a few minutes, this is its back
I was absolutely ecstatic about seeing a manatee. To me they are the type of animal you learn about, and might encounter at Sea World, but not in "real life". Seeing this guy was definitely the highlight of my week!
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