wildlife

Boating With the Dolphins

It was a beautiful December day here in Florida yesterday with temps in the 70’s and partly cloudy skies. So we went out cruising around on our flats boat.

We saw a lot of dolphins. And just to be clear, I am a horrible wildlife photographer. I can get some pretty good photos of living mollusks only because they move very slowly. And dolphins are only visible for a second or two as they hit the surface to get air.

In the photo below I just happened to be aiming toward the coast to get a picture of the condos beyond the backwater. I never even saw the dolphin, but my son did. When I checked the photo, sure enough there he was just hitting the surface.

Dolphin and condos in the distance — A dolphin just surfaced as I took this photo of condos on the coast

A dolphin came up right next to the boat so I grabbed my iPhone and waited to see him again. He stayed down under the water for a very long time and surfaced on the other side of the boat. Of course I was not ready for the shot! No worries – the dolphin were everywhere.

The last time I was out on the water there were no dolphins visible. The tide was high then, and this time the tide was low and going out. We were wondering if the lower water pushed the dolphin out of the shallow channels so we would see more of them in the main channels. I should pay attention to the tides in reference to dolphin sightings.

The manatees have left the cold (68 degrees) water this time of year for warmer places, like the many Springs and warm water runoff sights. But dolphin can be seen year round.

Below I managed to get a dolphin’s tail just before it submerged.

Dolphin tail just out of the water — Dolphin tail

As we headed back to the boat ramp we saw a couple of dolphin swimming in a circle and playing, or eating.

More Boating Photos

There is nothing too exciting to see here, just a pretty day on the water. We didn’t do any fishing, and I saw no hermit crabs along the island beach where we usually stop.

Indian River and South causeway — North Causeway in New Smyrna Beach behind us

Behind us was the bridge in New Smyrna, the North Causeway. We saw quite a few boats out parked at the sand bars or fishing along the mangroves. The sun is more “normal” this time of year so you don’t bake within five minutes. It is more enjoyable.

There was a nearly invisible crab trap buoy right in the channel. Boaters look for the markers to avoid getting tangled in the rope or hitting the metal traps. This one was nearly impossible to see.

The white birds and black birds we usually see were in the water and along the shorelines. The black ones are either Anhingas or Cormorants. The white birds are Egrets. For more photos of water birds (which are way better than mine) read this post by a vacationer.

I’m not good at identifying Florida birds (or getting their photo), except for the obvious types such as pelicans, Roseate spoonbills, Sandhill Cranes and seagulls.

Anhinga or cormorant water bird — Probably a cormorant

Manatees Playing at Haulover Boat Ramp

manatees haulover canal — Manatees at Haulover Canal

Nick and I took a ride over to the Mims and Titusville area the other day and one place we stopped was the Haulover Canal boat ramp. It’s a much smaller place than I thought, with only one ramp, but a nice trailer parking area. We walked out on the metal dock and that is where we watched the manatees play.

It was hot so we didn’t stay long, but the small bay area, where the boats launch and dock, was full of manatees. The water is brown and murky (brackish) but the manatees could be seen breaking the surface, splashing and rolling around. I got a short 30 second video – it was too bright for me to easily see what I was filming. It was also really hot – did I say that?

The boats go very slow in this little bay, so the manatees just move out of the way when they hear the motors. We drove over the bridge and went to the eastern side of the canal where there is a “Manatee Watching Deck” and didn’t see any manatees there. The boat dock was the best place to see them. (The observation area had port-o-potties, fyi.)

The Haulover Canal is a channel for boats to go between the Indian River, on the west, and Mosquito Lagoon, to the east. Both are wide open bodies of water. The canal is part of the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. On the opposite side from the boat launching area is a long dirt road. We traveled down to the end and saw cars stopped and little camps set up where people were fishing along the canal. At the end was an area to put in canoes and kayaks. This is the view from the end of that road which looks out into the Indian River lagoon, which is a huge area.

Haulover canal, Indian river lagoon — Indian River Lagoon

This is an aerial view of the area we visited. Click the picture below which takes you to the public boat ramp page.

aerial view of haulover canal — Aerial view of this area – click to view the page at Florida Fish and Wildlife public boat ramp finder

I can’t wait to have a boat so we can check out this area from the water!

Hermit Crabs in the Wild

My kids had hermit crabs as pets at one time. They lived in a little box and we provided various size shells for them to change into as they grew. (Hermit crabs live in the empty shells of mollusks.)

We fed them peanut butter and provided water in a little shell for them to drink. They would molt as they grew and we considered ourselves lucky to be present when they actually came out of the shell to scoot into a larger one.

They didn’t live very long and that was due to the fact that we didn’t really know what they needed to survive. Back then, I admit to being ignorant of keeping wild animals as pets. These days, I would have explained to my daughter that these animals belong in the wild.

When we got our pontoon boat, our family would cruise up and down the Intracoastal along the Indian River and stop at various little islands to explore and fish.

One of the islands we visited regularly was an island which I named “Broken Palm Island”. We noticed there were many very tiny hermit crabs roaming the beach there. I have a picture some place of my son with a little hermit crab crawling on his foot.

The kids thought it was awesome to find so many little crabs living in the wild as they were meant to. No one had to provide empty shells for these guys, they were finding plenty on the sandy shore.

Since this time, I’ve been out to the backwater areas and have discovered there are many more types of hermit crabs – and they are everywhere! I’ve even found a Giant Red hermit crab, which is rare for the area where I travel.