Underwater at the Silver River

We spent a couple days camping at Silver Springs State Park so we could go kayaking on the Silver River. On the way to the campground, the check engine light came on in the motor home. When we arrived at the campground and disconnected the Jeep, the check engine light came on in the Jeep. Jeezy peezy!

By the second day, the light went out in the Jeep. But, we left a day early because Regis could not resolve the motor home issue. The motor home is currently in the shop.

We got three kayaking trips in. We arrived late in the afternoon on the first day and wanted to kayak after dinner. Thunderstorms rolled through, so we nixed that plan.

We went kayaking the morning and late afternoon of the second day and the morning of the third day before we brought the ailing motorhome back.

After our first morning kayak run, we came back to the motorhome and got lunch. While making lunch, I told Regis it sounded like a bird was in the motor home. We didn’t see a bird in the motorhome, so we went on with our day. Later in the afternoon, Regis noticed a wren exiting from underneath one of the slides. He found this nest and it was less than 24 hours after we had arrived at the campsite!!

There were lots of baby birds. Baby Anhingas and Double-crested Cormorants were plentiful. We also saw baby Common Gallinule chicks. The baby Anhingas and Gallinule chicks were not very cute. It’s incredible those ugly little things grow up to be lovely birds.

Regis got a bunch of underwater video. He holds the camera in the water while kayaking. The first video is Double-crested Cormorants swimming under water. There were three young birds hanging around together and sometimes playing tug of war with pieces of grass. When you see one floating on the water, notice it sticking its head in the water to look around.

The second video is an underwater view of an American Alligator swimming. We heard an alligator bellowing and Regis went to track it down. We saw several small alligators on our three trips, but the one swimming in the video was probably the biggest one we saw.

The last video is some of the other life under water in the Silver River. There are lots of fishes and turtles under there. Occasionally, you see a Cormorant swim by.