Well, here I go again after a week's break. We were stuck in Titusville due to Gary having outpatient surgery. He said I could not disclose where he had surgery BUTT, I said, people may like to get to the BOTTOM of your problem. TUSH, TUSH he said. So, sorry I cannot tell you where he had surgery. I can tell you he is sore and does not like sitting down!!!!!

Because we were back in Titusville I got up early for sunrise and then drove to the refuge to see if there were any different birds from what I had seen before. I set my alarm clock for 6am (sunrise was 7:05) and much to my annoyance the alarm went off at 5:30 causing me to lose 30 mins of beauty sleep!! When I finally got up I looked at the clock and it said 6:00. Great timing, I thought. However, the clock was 45 mins slow making the correct time 6:45. I had only 20 mins to have my breakfast and drive to the site I had chosen for my sunrise photos. I carried my cereal with me to the car to eat at a stop light and made it to the photo site just 5 mins late. I was lucky because low level clouds actually obscured the sunrise until the sun got higher in the sky so if I had been on time I would not have seen much anyway.

 

A mist over the refuge.

Another mist over the refuge.

 OK, I know you are probably sick of seeing manatees but they really are the most gentlest of creatures that I have ever seen. Six of then hang about in our marina and if anyone spills fresh water overboard they are there lapping it up. They came to a boat across from our slip and waited patiently for one to finish his turn at the boat before drinking themselves. I thought I might give you some interesting facts about manatees:

They have "marching molars" the same as sharks so new teeth continuously erupt throughout their lives.  In other words, they are polyphyodontic.
They have very coarse hair the full length of their body and the whiskers around their mouth helps manatees hold food whilst eating.
The intestines of a manatee can measure up to 130 feet in length and it takes 7 days for the vegetation to pass through their digestive system. Because of this they produce large amounts of gas from the food they eat.
They have solid bones (no marrow) which helps them to submerge easily.
Cows are bigger than bulls.

This manatee was lying on his back as if he was sunbathing.

This manatee is drinking the water that is dripping down the boat from the owner's air conditioner.

This is actually a closeup of two manatees sharing the water at the same time. You can see the open nostrils of one and the closed nostrils of the other. It looks as though they are lip locked!!

I'm not sure how many are in this photo.

There are 3 in this photo.

This poor guy must have brushed up against a boat that had recently been painted. I called him "Red"!!!! In this photo he looks as though he is washing his face.

 Here are some photos of my trip to the wildlife refuge:

 

 I was so excited when I saw the above animal in the grass in front of me. I thought it was a bobcat as the refuge does have them but they are never ever seen due to being nocturnal.

 However, as you can see, my bobcat was a raccoon.

An ibis in the very early morning mist.

This baby alligator was cute. I forgot that Mum is usually around to protect her offspring so I hurried back up the bank side after taking my photo.

 Snowy egret, black-necked stilt and ibis

White pelicans fishing as a team. They do not dive like the brown pelican. When one turns, they all do as if they are syncronized swimmers.  Wing span up to 10 feet.

The photos above and below are of the reddish egret. He was quite a performer running all over to catch his fish.

I thought his neck looked weird on this photo.

Yippee, I can fly!!!!

If I approach the fish on my tippy toes, they might not hear me!!!

Turtles.

Momma mocking bird feeding her young.

I think the Momma nearly lost her beak in the chick's throat.

Momma, I need more, NOW!!!

Gary and I drove past the Astronaut Hall of Fame yesterday. We did not go in due to Gary not wanting to walk around too much.

I was SO excited to see the shuttle craft as I have always enjoyed watching it land and take off on TV. After taking my photos I looked more closely at the craft and its name "Inspiration". I do not remember a craft called "Inspiration" and its tiles did not look real. I think, but am not fully sure but believe this is a replica of the shuttle, in other words it was a FAKE.

 Gary and I spent a couple of nights in Daytona attending a sales pitch for a Vacation Time Share. The following photos are all we took of our short stay.

 The above monument is dedicated to Malcolm Campbell's land speed record. He also held the record for the greatest speed on water. Both car and boat were called "Bluebird". His son Donald, created a water speed record on Lake Coniston on January 4th, 1967 but was killed on his 2nd run. His boat was also called "Bluebird".

It is a little hard to see but sitting in the shadow is a mourning dove. Every time the sun moved the shadow he would shuffle along the sand to stay in the shade - clever boy!!

 These two are videos of the manatees. I could not get them to work on my computer so you may not be able to see them either. Let me know if they do or do not work. I previewed the blog before publishing it and the videos worked. All you have to do is click on the arrow on the left bottom side of the picture

And finally, 3 photos of sunset as seen at the marina in Titusville.