- Chasing The Silver River: River Patrol -

I spend a lot of time in a canoe with my camera on the Silver River, located in Silver Springs, actually part of Ocala, FL. For those who don't know, the river is fed by a famous, first magnitude spring, reputed to be one of the largest on the planet, with a gush of somewhere around 550 million gallons per day! There are also many other springs at the head of the river that add to the flow.
The water at the main spring head is crystal clear; it clouds more, as you move downstream, but still stays amazingly luminous, until you get down toward the power boat launching area, and finally, somewhere on the way to Moss Bluff, it loses much of it's magic and becomes just an ordinary river again.
Years ago, I travelled this river underwater (both SCUBA and snorkeling) with my youngest son. That was before I knew just how big, the alligators get here! and before I had one swim over and check me out on another spring-fed river, but, as they say, that's a different story...This gorgeous little guy, this post's visual story, is a Little Green Heron. He just happened to be curious and stayed around long enough to pose for me. Sometimes you get lucky.