There be MANATEES here!!! (14 Pics) [View all]

[A HERETIC I AM]

I've been renting a house on an arm of the St. Johns river in Jacksonville, FL since November. My neighbor told me that Manatees, Alligators and occasionally Dolphins will appear in this waterway in the late Spring and Summer. I've been waiting for proof of that and finally saw two Manatees! I saw a few about 3 days ago but they weren't close enough to the surface or too far out in the channel to get a good shot, but this afternoon, two of them graced me by coming close enough to get some shots.

I apologize for the quality of the photos, as they were taken with my iPhone held away from my body. Most focused fairly well, but others didn't.


Here they are!

First of all, here's a pic of the edge of my backyard that is right on the waterway. This is southwest of downtown Jax;



This was the first glimpse of what looked to be a mother and calf;


They seemed to be cruising about 3 feet below the surface. There's a fair amount of debris in the water as a result of the Storm that passed over a couple days ago.

Heading toward me;



The calf coming up for a breath;


You can barely make out the mommas tail in front of the calf.

Momma surfacing;



They rounded the corner and started heading down the inlet. Behind my next door neighbors place is a branch that had fallen during the passing of the Tropical Storm the other day and they seemed to stop and check it out. I zoomed in a bit and shot away as they surfaced;





Calf surfacing for air over mommas tail;



And back under;



Momma takes a breath;





Now turning and moving further down the channel;








I've lived in Florida on and off for almost 25 years and have never seen a Manatee in the wild. I am frankly THRILLED to be living in a place where they pass by my backyard! It was really cool to see them. Momma looked to be about 12 feet long and the calf about 6' or so, so certainly not a newborn.

This was totally cool!

I hope you enjoyed the photos as much as I enjoyed being able to share them.