The cruise begins in Dunnellon, where we had lunch at the recently opened Blue Gator restaurant on the Withlacoochee River. I can highly recommend their blackened grouper.
The town of Dunnellon is located at the confluence of the Withlacoochee and Rainbow Rivers. The Rainbow River is left and the Withlacoochee right of the clump of trees. Our cruise will take us on parts of both.
Where the rivers meet could not be more obvious if you put a wall between them. The Withlacoochee is a tannic river, stained dark by the leaves of trees that grow along its banks. Its source is the Green Swamp between Tampa and Orlando. You can see its waters in the bottom left of this photo. The spring-fed Rainbow River is crystal clear from its headwaters at Rainbow Springs State Park.
View up the Rainbow River
Cypress trees
We were introduced to many kinds of fishermen along the way. This is a female anhinga, distinctive for her long slender neck and yellow breast. Also commonly called a water turkey because her tail feathers resemble a wild turkey’s.
Snowy egret
Can you spot the little blue heron hiding in the grass?
Here he is close up
This green heron was very shy…could only get a distance shot
Cormorants using the tree as a drying rack. Like the anhingas they do not have oily feathers so they have to let their feathers dry after diving fish.
They can be recognized by the hook on the end of their beaks.
White Ibis
Fisherman of the human kind
Can’t remember this guy’s real name, but commonly called a swamp chicken’
5 to 6 foot gator, lying in wait…
Red wildflowers
Turning up the Withlacoochee
Yellow-bellied sliders sunning on a log. They must spend time drying out or the water degrades their bodies…same thing happens to me if I spend too much time in the water.
Jon Semmes grew up on the river and now makes his living here. He entertains us with songs about Florida.
Ya’ll come back now.
