assorted sebastian inlet park, merritt island wildlife refuge etc

[jann1033]

i got a kick out of this, story behind it...we were fortunate enough to see 8 or so manatees swimming into Indian river lagoon from the ocean via Sebastian inlet...2 cruised up to these fisherman standing in the inlet,,,however when they started to come over there were 4 fisherman, and redshirt man is going to join the other guy who basically walked over the water to get onshore..not that i'd blame him since i 'd probably do the same if a curious 3000lb mammal decided to come see what i was doing they were so close i could have touched them but wasn't sure what was considered harassing them so i resisted but i loved seeing them so close in the wild
baby and mama dolphin that were right by our campsite each morning with some others...best i could get, they move fast

love that fl light!

sand hill cranes walking through someone's yard on the sebastian river boat tour...much bigger than anything i see in my backyard

 

[jann1033]

they had a really nice giraffe exhibit at the melbourne zoo, you could feed them from this head high platform and get really close so i got to pet that and an alligator( 3yr old) there

a bouy that broke loose and nearly hit the jetty while we were there

pelican hoping some one leaves some fish for him

manatees,i guess that is algae on their tail?

osprey eating breakfast on top of a phone pole

white pelicans on pelican island

ok i'll stop now

 

[AndrewWG]

Jan,

Merry Christmas!

Those pics are great! So many to choose from. I think I like the giraffe (?) eyeball the best. How shiny is that? WOW!

Quick funny story about manatees. The last time we were in FLA for a non-Disney trip, we went to the keys and took a nature boat tour. The guide knew where we could see manatees. When he took us there, he told DD (then 6 yrs old) to stick her toes in the water and the manatees may come up and suck on them! I'm not sure why they would do that, but I guess they do. She did it, but they didn't come close enough thankfully. I don't think they have teeth, but one of those things could have sucked in her whole leg!

ps. You look like someone who would really enjoy the magazine Nature Photographer. It only comes out quarterly, but I really love it. You can see some of it here:

http://www.naturephotographermag.com/

 

[safetymom]

Great photos!!

 

[jann1033]

Jan,

Merry Christmas!

Those pics are great! So many to choose from. I think I like the giraffe (?) eyeball the best. How shiny is that? WOW!

Quick funny story about manatees. The last time we were in FLA for a non-Disney trip, we went to the keys and took a nature boat tour. The guide knew where we could see manatees. When he took us there, he told DD (then 6 yrs old) to stick her toes in the water and the manatees may come up and suck on them! I'm not sure why they would do that, but I guess they do. She did it, but they didn't come close enough thankfully. I don't think they have teeth, but one of those things could have sucked in her whole leg!

ps. You look like someone who would really enjoy the magazine Nature Photographer. It only comes out quarterly, but I really love it. You can see some of it here:

http://www.naturephotographermag.com/

thanks for the link, i don't recall ever seeing that one before...did you notice the ibis in fl article? i expect to see photos of some after your everglades trip i'll have to look over my merritt island photos more carefully but most of the birds there were to far from the black point trail for my puny 200mm lens to get much detail

 

[boBQuincy]

Very nice wildlife photos!
I really love seeing manatees in the wild, they're such gentle creatures.

 

[AndrewWG]

[/B]
thanks for the link, i don't recall ever seeing that one before...did you notice the ibis in fl article? i expect to see photos of some after your everglades trip i'll have to look over my merritt island photos more carefully but most of the birds there were to far from the black point trail for my puny 200mm lens to get much detail

Jan,

I got a kick out of the issue I got today in my stocking. I had never really heard of the reddish egret before your picture, and there is a whole article on it. Also, there is a one page article on the Shark Valley area of the Everglades that I am going to in Feb! Perfect issue! Most (if not all) of the articles are written by the photographers (who are subscribers to the mag). That makes it neat. Also, the equipment used is in each picture caption so that is real cool to see too!

I hope my puny 200 mm lens will work well! I think it will be just fine though. I will put the teleconverter on if need be, but I prefer to work without it when possible. It is only 1.4x, but it gives me that little extra.

I hope you had a Merry Christmas!