Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park was only a ten-minute drive from Rockcrusher Canyon RV Resort and was a "must-see" attraction even though we had seen it before. The number and variety of birds had us snapping off hundreds of pictures. Sometimes, it seemed the birds were posing for the camera. None seemed shy and they were all beautiful (in their own bizarre way).
It seems like one of the ironies of nature that the flamingo should be the epitome of grace and beauty while smelling so foul. When our eyes started to water and it was best to just keep moving.
Lou, the Hippo, has been in the park for many years. Feeding time was everyone's favorite, as he seemed to swallow whole everything Vicki tossed at him.
The yellow-green you see behind Lou was the remnants of a "splash-zone" event. Fortunately, I was on the other side of the pool when the tail started spinning, so I was in the clear.
The crowd at feeding time made it clear Lou was the star attraction at Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park.
It was playtime for the otters - they were extremely active. They would race from their platform to the viewing bridge then do a flip turn and return on their backs. Unfortunately, they were too quick for me to capture well except for this shot when he hopped on the platform for a breather.
You can get an idea just how popular manatee watching is in the area - even when the weather is so warm. We only saw one sad manatee being pursued by a pack of pushy snorkelers. You just wanted to say to him, "swim to the other side of the rope big fella and they can't follow".
Colder weather drives the manatees to the springs for warmer water. The freakishly warm weather equals very few manatees.
The underwater viewing station was a good idea, but it was too warm for manatees to be this far upstream. Algae on the windows made really clear photos impossible. The fuzzy shot below captured only a few of what must have been thousands of fish swimming in schools around the viewing ports.
I think I captured the essence of the beast with my look of cluelessness and wonder.
There were so many more residents of the park not included in our pictures. As an apology, I will just give a shout out to the alligators, swans, herons, cranes, the entire reptile house, bears, foxes, wolves, pumas. bobcats, eagles, owls, deer and, of course, the manatees.
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