The feature image is a Great Blue Heron patiently waiting for a fish to pop up out of the water pipe at Viera Wetlands in Viera, Florida.
This post is in response to TERRI WEBSTER SCHRANDT Sunday Stills challenge. The theme this week is Water.
Also for Jez’s Water Water Everywhere.
Florida
With Florida being a peninsula and water on three sides of it, the St. Johns River that runs north (uphill) and the Hillsborough River running through Tampa Bay, plus Lake Okeechobee, numerous lakes and springs, Florida is the place for water! While I have waterfalls and other awesome water photos from other states, I will stick with my home state for this post.
Fishermen motoring off into the sunset through the salt marsh.
The Atlantic Ocean can be quite powerful during a storm. The Pelicans like to ride the waves along the 6 miles of sandy beach at Little Talbot Island State Park. The handicap accessible boardwalk on the right is no longer there and the dunes are gone. It was destroyed by Hurricane Matthew in 2016.
Whether you are on the west coast or east coast of Florida, there is always a fantastic sunset to be seen. Both of these shots were taken in Jacksonville on the east coast. The one on the right was me wading out into the surf to capture the sun’s reflection in the shallow water left when the tide was going out. The photo on the right is the St. Johns River looking west as if you were on the west coast of Florida. The St. Johns River is the longest river in Florida. It flows 310 miles north starting at its Headwaters at Blue Cypress Lake in Indian River County to the mouth where it empties out into the Atlantic Ocean east of Jacksonville.
A beautiful sunset adorned with rays behind building storm clouds. A lone bird is flying away from me.
A family of Manatees swim by at Blue Springs State Park.
This is the tallest of 4 bridges that connect Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater. Unfortunately, it is a killer! There have been at least 310 deaths by suicide, 43 survivors and many others missing. In 1999, the state of Florida installed six crisis hotline phones along the center span and began 24 hour patrols. By 2003, the call center at the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay had only received 18 calls from potential jumpers. In January, 2020, the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) announced they would be installing a Skyway Vertical Net, a barrier to prevent suicide. The $3.4 million project is expected to be complete by this summer.
A couple canoeing along the Hillsborough River at Lettuce Lake Park in Tampa, Florida.
The rapids…yes I said rapids at Hillsborough River State Park near Zephyrhills, Florida.
A peaceful day exploring Little Talbot Island State Park when there were still trees. The erosion is really causing an alarming concern as the tremulous surf continues to push this natural beach further back with no dunes to protect it. The state has mentioned restoration projects but so far nothing has happened. It would be a shame to lose this barrier island in the next 30-40 years.
Our Eyes Open 
Comments
76 responses to “Sunday Stills – Water – 05.02 .21”
Lisa, these are all great photos. I love the one with the canoe. Wonderful gallery of water. 😀
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Thank you Cee. I could have kept going on this one. LOL! 🙂
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Oh, fabulous. What a place. So restorative.
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Thanks Margaret! 🙂
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Gorgeous scenery and images, Lisa. I loved the Hermet Crab! 😀
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Thanks Deborah. I could do a water challenge every day for 5 years and not run out of photos. 😎
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LOL! I’m right there with you, but birds, flowers, and landscapes would be mine. 😀
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Well, obviously birds is on that list too. LOL! 🙂
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😀
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Loved you pictures. I miss the beauty of Fla. Living in south Ga growing up, Fla was our playground.
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Thank you. Florida is a special place for sure. I’m originally from Texas but been here 35 years. I don’t think I will ever leave. 😊
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A stunning array of waterscapes, Lisa. Sad to read about the erosion of Little Talbot Island. I do love the little hermit crab captured by your lens. Crazy statistics about the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. Lot of activity in your shots. Glad you could join us this week!
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Thanks Terri! If you make water a regular thing, I can go every time. LOL! Missed you on Tuesday! Too much going on and I had to be a driver for my daughter. 🙂
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Marsha and I were not on the call either. I had a root canal 🙁
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I just saw this. How did the root canal go? You have guts to get your second shot and a root canal within a few days. 😊
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Both went amazingly well, Lisa. Zero reaction to the shot except for a little arm soreness and feeling sleepy early in the evening. Thanks for checking on me 🙂
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So glad to hear that! That is really lucky! Missed you on the call today. 🙂
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Hubby got his #1 Moderna this a.m., then the contractor came by! Busy morning!
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How did he do with his first shot? The Moderna is the one we got and put me down. I feel more confident about going out now even though we continue to do exactly what we were doing before. 🙂
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He’s doing fine. In a few weeks we’ll see how he does with the second Moderna. I think we’re all doing what we’ve been doing, but now conversations once you get Inside a location are about asking to remove the mask because we’re vaccinated. And that is a choice for everyone which we didn’t have before.
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I hope he he does well with the second. I’m nervous about the no mask thing especially since the announcement of the 8 vaccinated Yankees players have tested positive for covid. Scary stuff! 🙂
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He’s tough, lol. I will keep wearing a mask if I’m in proximity with people I don’t know.
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Oh yeah me too. I don’t trust people to do the right thing. They could be walking around without a mask and not got their shot. How do we know unless we all have to carry around out vaccination card? I mean this is so dumb! 🙂
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Beautiful pictures Lisa.. I love the blue heron!!!! 💖
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Thank you Cindy! That GBH was there in the morning when we arrived and was there when we left the area late that afternoon. Apparently, it was the spot. 🙂
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Oh my gosh the Hermet Crab is so cute! What a great picture! All of them are fantastic.
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Thank you so much! It was a pretty spectacular capture. They usually hide! 🙂
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water, water, everywhere indeed! I think I remember from grade school that the St; Johns River is the only river in the U.S. that flows north. Do you know if that is true? (I’m too lazy to look it up…)
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It is not the only one, but is the only one on the east coast. The Willamette River in Oregon runs north. There is a kink though in this…the Fox River in Wisconsin runs northeast. 🙂
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you gotta love how unpredictable mother nature is… 🙂
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I absolutely do! Nothing like being out there experiencing it. We don’t mess with lightning though. The few times we’ve gotten caught off guard miles down the beach has freaked me out.
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I don’t blame you; lightning and beaches do not mix well..
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Nope, they sure don’t and I will probably be sharing some of that this week if time permits. 🙂
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looking forward to it…
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Thanks Jim. I’ve been quiet this week, but I sure enjoyed my time down in Tampa. 🙂
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I am jealous!
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I didn’t go to the beach. Red Tide. Don’t be that jealous because the bloom has just started and causes your eyes to burns. It can cause severe respiratory problems. Not good! I spent it inside the air conditioning with my family. It was in the high 90’s. 🙂
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does the red tide happen every year?
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Yes. Some years are worse than others. It is a byproduct of over fertilizing. People have to have their beautiful green St. Augustine grass to keep up with the Joneses. LOL! All kidding aside, it is a serious problem. More houses being built, more people moving here, more water pulled from the aquifer and over fertilizing. Florida’s natural resources are taking the brunt of it and can’t keep up with supply and demand. Mother Nature retaliates! 🙂 Red Tide is mainly in the Gulf. We don’t get it here on the Atlantic side. 🙂
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maybe it will keep housing prices down on the gulf until we are ready to move, and maybe by then they will have figured out how to fix the problem…
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It won’t keep the prices down. The housing prices are skyrocketing because of investors. The market will not sustain but who knows when it will be before we have a shift. Right now, it’s a sellers market. Hopefully, your timing will be impeccable. 🙂
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I hope there is a shift within the next five years 🙂
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Sounds like you got a plan! 🙂
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there’s a fine line between a plan and a dream 🙂
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Not when you keep dreaming until you are able to implement the plan. Never stop pursuing your dream! It is the only way to make it a reality. 🙂
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I like your apositive attitude!
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Thank you! I know it is easier said than done, but I have faith in you! 🙂
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I would have to time things just right if we move so that I don’t miss a day of blogging 🙂
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That’s what the scheduling button is for. 😉 Sure don’t want your stats to get out of whack. 😂
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using the scheduling button would require planning ahead! hmmm….
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Like you don’t have those type of skills, Mr. Professor! hehehe! 🙂
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I think over six plus years of blogging, I’ve used the Schedule button perhaps three or four times…
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Wow! I’ve only been at it for 2 years and I’ve used it more than I can count on both hands. 🙂
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it would be nice to have a couple of blogs already written in cases of emergency/laziness, but I can never seem to bring myself to do so…
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Since the Etsy shop has gotten busy, I have trouble scheduling posts now too. When the pandemic hit, I had all the time in the world and had my week planned and almost finished before the end of the week. We were taking a lot of day trips last April/May also so the blogs were hitting while I was out birding. 🙂
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it must have been nice to have been ahead of schedule. are the birdhouses for sale yet?
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It was awesome back in the day. LOL! This week has been rough. We lost power on Monday for 6 hours due to an accident a block from the house. A video went viral on Tik Tok the same day (not mine) but people found me and I had my biggest single day ever. I’m not on my second best month ever. They are still coming in. I ran out of product but have more coming in today. At the moment, I can’t do anything until it gets here. I haven’t been on the blog in 3 days. 🙂
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OK; I’ll try and keep an eye out for it… 🙂
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I’ll let you know when I get them up. Life has been hectic! Frank is travelling to GA today for a funeral. I have too many orders to process so I didn’t go with him. Too bad too because on the way home, he is stopping for blueberries and at one of our birding spots. Oh well! Time to get busy now! 🙂
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I guess you have to take care of business when you can…
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Yeah, the shop has been all the charts the past week. It has been good. 🙂
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👍👍
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Wonderful gallery and an informative post Lisa 🙂 🙂
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Thank you Brian! It was actually fun to do. I miss my info posts but the darn time is kicking my butt! 🙂
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What a fantastic place, beautiful photos 💜
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Thanks Willow. Yes, we are lucky to live where we live with all the wonderful places in nature to visit. It is what kept us sane during the pandemic. 🙂
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It’s beautiful 💜
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As others have said, what a great selection of photos! Hard to pick favourites but as always I am tempted to do so. I love the heron and the hermit crab, and also your final photo – it’s such a shame about the erosion but it’s created a beautiful image.
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Thank you Sarah. We live is a magical place and I’m not talking about Disney World. LOL! 🙂 There is more to the story with the erosion but it would have turned into an angry post.
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I can see what you mean about magical. We really enjoyed our road trip around Florida years ago and again, I’m not talking about Disney!
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You know that’s right! 😂
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Beautiful photos Lisa!
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Thanks Aletta. Only a smidgin of Florida. LOL! 🙂
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[…] Our Eyes Open […]
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Love these photos. When we visited family in Florida, we used to love going to Blue Springs to see teh manatee. I love the crab photo too.
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Thank you Kirstin. It’s been a while since we’ve been to Blue Springs. We stopped in at Silver Springs on Monday and plan on taking our kayak there next week for a paddle. 🙂
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