Day 172 - Port St. Joe, FL

It warmed up today to the mid forties, so Riley and I went for a walk along the beach.  We caught some egrets admiring their reflections in a quiet pond hidden in the grass, a blue heron pretending to be a statue in the hope we wouldn't notice him, and some killdeer etching designs in the sand with their feet. We watched the smoke spread in the distance from a fire in the direction of Apalachicola.  Riley sniffed out the messages his peers had left in the bushes.  I searched for seashells.

A news report on the television proved how smart some animals are.  Hundreds of manatees gathered at the discharge canal at the Apollo Beach Power Plant to warm up when the waters in the Gulf dipped below 68 degrees.  Here's a link with a photo:
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://z.about.com/d/marinelife/1/0/x/1/-/-/manateesapollobeach2-500x375.jpg&imgrefurl=http://marinelife.about.com/od/watchingandphotography/ig/Florida-Manatee-Images/Manatees-at-Apollo-Beach--FL.htm&usg=__bRPMvrf9FQToaHComuhFmzcMv9I=&h=375&w=500&sz=95&hl=en&start=1&tbnid=9OBJnOldj3faVM:&tbnh=98&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmanatees,%2BFlorida,%2Bpower%2Bplant%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den