Homosassa

Playing the fifth hole
Manatee

Snook
Lu the Hippo
Bald Eagle
Great Horned Owl

Wood Duck
Whooping Crane
Roseate Spoonbill

Alligator
Florida Panther
Black Bear

We are in Homasassa, located in an area known as Florida's Nature Coast. There are a few beaches but, generally, the area is mostly forest and sawgrass along the gulf with almost no roads to the coast. We are at the Turtle Creek Campground on the fifth hole of the golf course. We visited the Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park which is on a spring fed stream of very clear warm water making it an ideal habitat for manatees. There is an underwater viewing area to see the many fish that come into the stream. We also saw a number of native Florida species and one honorary animal that we had not seen before. The honorary animal is Lucifer, the hippo, who was there when the state took over the park which had been a private endeavour. He was made an honorary natural species so he could remain. Some of the birds we saw for the first time were the roseate spoonbill, whooping crane, flamingo, wood and fulvous whistling ducks. There were black bears, which are common in this part of Florida and many other animals we have seen in other places throughout the state. We have really enjoyed the large variety of flora and fauna we have seen in the last three months. We visited Terry and Donna Weir, snowbirds we met previously in Niagara Heartland this summer.