Jarring and Calming on the Silver River

January 22, 2024                                              Most Recent Posts:
Silver Springs State Park Site 7         Everything was Going Fine and Then. . .
Silver Springs, Florida                         Ross Prairie and the Reservation Blues

There are many things to love about staying at Silver Springs State Park but the one I love the most is being able to take my kayak down to the boat launch and lock it up there.  That means I do not have to drive the kayak anywhere or take it on and off the car each day I go paddling.  I pull it down once on the wheels I have for it, find a place to lock it and come down every morning that I can to kayak the river.  Yes it’s perhaps a mile from the parking lot to the launch and yes it is a sandy trail and yes it is up hill all the way back when it’s time to leave, but it’s all so worth the effort to be able to kayak nearly every day.

How could I not love spending my mornings in this spectacular place?

It is simply amazing how much I see on a morning paddle of 2 or 3 hours or 4 if I get carried away.  These  photographs are all from one morning.  They are from Monday January 22nd.   This particular day had the shocking and the fantastic.  I will warn you, there is one picture showing nature “red in tooth and claw” as an alligator snatches a monkey.   I’ll let you know in advance and leave larger space before and after it so you can skip it if you like. 

 

Yellow Bellied Slider

Double Crested Cormorant
Check the blue eye

Male Anhinga

Ibis often travel in groups and these were feeding on a mat along the shore.  This short short video shows the use one makes of his long curved bill.

On cloudy days or very cool mornings the turtles and gators may not be sunning until things warm up and/or the sun comes out. 

This gator looks  totally relaxed so casually draped over the log with a turtle lunch in reach.

Ain’t life grand he seems to be saying.

Green Heron

Tri-Colored Heron

Great Blue Heron

Black Crowned Night Heron

Male Anhinga drying his wings

When I took this picture I did not realize the hawk had just had a hunting success. 

One of the reasons I believe that I see the diversity on this river is that is so well cared for.  The state owns both sides of it nearly its entire length and as you can see allows no fishing, no swimming, no scuba, no snorkeling and idle speed for motors though this is often disregarded.  

I have many pictures of manatee from this paddle.  I saw them several times when I was paddling up the river and when I was coming back.

I have restrained myself from posting too many of this marvelous mammal.

Wood ducks and turtles.

This young alligator still has his juvenile markings which I think are wonderful.

I saw many of each bird and of alligators and turtles and manatee during my morning.   I’ve tried not to duplicate tooo many.   The Black Crowned and the Green are my favorite herons.

I have left enough space before the next picture that if you wish to skip it, you can zoom on by.  I have really pondered whether to include this or not.   But it is a part of the natural world.

While paddling into a small cove, I was amazed to see an alligator on the bank snatch what I thought was an Anhinga or perhaps a Cormorant.  But later my close up shots of him eating his prey showed it to be a monkey.  I have several much more graphic pictures which I am not posting.  It is the only time in all my years on rivers in Florida that I have seen a gator grab something and eat it.

I felt as though I had moved from one extreme river experience to another when as I floated on down the river I was picked up by first one manatee and then by two.  The first experience was jarring and this was so very calming.

It was fantastic to have these escorts as I mostly floated  down the river and  one of the most delightful river experiences I’ve ever had.

You can see from my paddle in the pictures how close they were.

Because Manatee are so wonderful and so few people actually get to see them in the wild, I have included three short videos of them as they traveled with  me down the river.   Use these links to view them.  

The first is 10 seconds.

The second is 23 seconds.

And the third is 20 seconds.

At times they would put their noses up for air and then disappear from view.  I would be sad that they had left and then thrilled to see them reappear.

They were always close by when they reappeared and some times, as  in the picture below, going under my kayak.

The manatee escorted me down the river for nearly a mile and a half before it was time for me to leave and pull onto the campground ramp up head in the picture below.  You can see one moving on before me on my left.  They went on their way down the river.   I was SOOO  tempted to just keep by their sides.   I wonder where I would have ended up.

This really was an extraordinary day on the Silver River.