Lower Wekiva River & Blackwater Creek

Red Shouldered Hawk

A solo paddle today so you know what that means. No wifey, not many good pics. Did kayak one of my favorites; Lower Wekiva River from Katie's Landings. Went all the way to Blackwater Creek, explored it for 30 minutes and returned to Katie's. Did something that wanted to do but never had the chance. Instead of going down river thru the East of the island near Katie's, pushed my way thru the West side and it was nice. Otters were swimming and walking around there. Sadly did not have an opportunity for a decent pic.

Limpkin

Put In / Take Out: Katie's Landing. For more information about this place, one of the easiest to Put In and Take Out of the places I visit, please check our fist post about this place on this blog. Just in case you really want to have the information now here is a link Lower Wekiva River - March 5 2011.

Anhinga

Little Blue Heron

It was a terrific day in lower part of the Wekiva River. Two couples fishing put in as I did. Saw them again just before Wekiva Haven and did not see any other kayaker during the whole trip and the two motor boats I saw, one was a boat from the Tomoka Marsh Protection (or something like that) and the last one was almost at the end and I was in the wide part of the river near Katie's Landings. It was cold in the morning and a bit less cold in the afternoon. As I mentioned at the opening paragraph, did explore the west side of the island just north of Katie's. It was very nice change in the routine of paddling down river on the east side, where there are lots of houses. The west side is wild and very scenic. A couple of otters had fun at my expense. While one swam from me, eluding my efforts to get a pic, the other one swam 10 feet away from the kayak and went under when I realized it was there. Otters 1 - Me 0.

Eastern Phoebe

Sandhill Cranes

At one of the straight stretches of the river did see another otter swimming. Tried a pic that did not work. Then it went out of the water and got a pic of it that sadly did not come good. The otter played with, and gave me, another chance while running in the forest parallel to the bank. I did miss again. Otters won 4-0. Did not see it again. It is easier when my wife is with me. After that it was an uneventful and normal paddle to the mouth of Blackwater Creek. Lots of woodpeckers and song birds all over the place. There were also more wood storks than I usually see in this part of the river. Took me two hours and 10 minutes to reach the mouth of the creek and decided to explore it for a while instead of turning around. Almost immediately a Black Crowned Night Heron gave me a chance for a pic and took advantage of it. I was paddling very slow and listening to the forest's sounds, hoping to see a bear or a deer, or both. Instead did hear gun shots in the distance, which made me think that maybe it was a good time to turn around and go back to Katie's.

Black Crowned Night Heron at Blackwater Creek

Did You Know That? Wood storks are tall, white denizens of freshwater or brackish wetlands and swamps. They can be identified by their long legs, featherless heads, and prominent bills. These waders feed on minnows in shallow water by using their bills to perform a rare and effective fishing technique. The stork opens its bill and sticks it into the water, then waits for the touch of an unfortunate fish that wanders too close. When it feels a fish, the stork can snap its bill shut in as little as 25 milliseconds—an incredibly quick reaction time matched by few other vertebrates. The storks prefer to employ this technique in isolated pools created by tides or falling freshwater levels, where fish congregate in masses. In some areas, such as Florida, breeding begins with the dry season that produces these optimal fishing conditions. Wood storks are social animals. They feed in flocks and nest in large rookeries—sometimes several pairs to a single tree. Females lay two to five eggs, which both sexes incubate for about one month. Youngs fledge about two months after hatching. Wood storks breed in the southeastern United States and are the only stork to breed in the U.S. They also breed in Central and South America from Mexico to Argentina. Though U.S. populations are endangered—probably because of the loss of optimal feeding habitat—the South American stork populations are in better shape.

Red Bellied Woodpecker

I am going to finish this one here now when the Packers trail the Giants 30-13.Master Dave must be very nervous right now. I was rooting for the Broncos and Tim Tebow but Brady and the Patriots destroyed them last night so now I can watch the playoffs and enjoy the games, which is what I usually do. Here are more pics of what I saw at the Lower Wekiva River...

Palm Warbler (ID courtesy of Georgia Wilson)

Limpkin

Sandhill Crane

Belted Kingfisher

Mallards

Pie Billed Grebe

Wild Turkey

Great Blue Heron

Juvenile Little Blue Heron

Gray Catbird

Belted Kingfisher

Great Blue Heron

Wood Stork

Great Egret

Ibis

Ibis

Red Bellied Woodpecker

Turtle

Pileated Woodpecker

Red Shouldered Hawk

Great Blue Heron

Juvenile Little Blue Heron

Yellow Bellied Sapscuker (ID courtesy of Georgia Wilson)

Moorhen

Red Shouldered Hawk

Little Blue Heron

Green Heron

Wood Duck

Osprey

Coot

Savannah Sparrow (ID courtesy of Georgia Wilson)

Green Heron

Post...post...Forgot to include a few scenic pics last night...

The Wekiva River is really clear these days...

Lower Wekiva River

Blackwater Creek

Blackwater Creek

That is it for this one. Thanks for reading and see you soon for another Views From Our Kayak. See you then.

Lower Wekiva River

Blue Spring(Snake Creek, Hontoon Dead & St. Johns River)

Black Crowned Night Heron

First paddle trip of 2012 and what a nice one it was. All the beauty that the waters in and around Blue Spring can offer. Manatees, eagle, gators, and more. After three days of really cold weather thought that it was going to be a good idea to go to Blue Spring, a manatee sanctuary. My wife loves manatees and this place offers a great perspective with the clear greenish waters of the spring, which serves as a sanctuary for the marine mammals from November 15^th to March 1st. That means that Blue Spring Run is closed to all activities, except observing the manatees from the Boardwalk. Here are some of the views we had from the boardwalk.

Manatees at Blue Spring Run

Manatee sanctuary at Blue Spring

Manatees huddle

Manatee near the boardwalk

Boardwalk at Blue Spring State Park

Put In / Take Out: Blue Spring State Park in Orange City. For information about the location and entrance fees please check this link: Blue Spring State Park. When you put in here you are in the waters of the St. Johns River. If you rent a canoe or a kayak at the park, the concessionary will provide you a map of the area. There are many options about to where to go when you kayak here. Today we kayaked Snake Creek, Hontoon Dead River, and the St. Johns River. I am not going to mention times because it will not do any good. We are slow paddlers and in addition to that, we take our sweet time to get pics so do not use as a reference on how long it takes to go from point A and B because it will do you no good.

Gray Catbird

Blue Spring Run

We arrived at the gate of Blue Spring State Park at 8:45AM. The sign in the Ranger’s boot said that there were 280 manatees in the run the day before. My wife wanted to spend some time looking at the manatees. We stayed there for almost one hour walking and stopping at the observations deck to see the several manatees in the Blue Spring Run. Two volunteers were counting the manatees and told us there were over 200 manatees at the time. I thought that was a little vague. Over 200 can be 201 to 299 so to be nice and politically correct I will say that the number was 250. Regardless, it is a special experience to see so many manatees all together in one location. The pics are not good enough to tell you how impressive it is.

Manatee at the Blue Spring Run

Great Blue Heron

We finally put in at 9:55 and headed North in the St. Johns River. There is a small island west of the end of French Avenue and it is a good place to see wildlife. While trying to get a pic of a Little Blue Heron a pair of Ibis flew by, and then three more, and a bunch followed that one, and after that bunch it seemed like all the birds in the forest were flying in alarm. I looked up and an eagle, a juvenile, was flying around like intimidating the rest of the wildlife. Red Shouldered Hawks screamed and the Ibis left in a hurry. The young eagle seemed to be imposing its reign of terror. It was nice to see an eagle flying like that. Most of the times we see eagles they are perched or flying too high. This one flew around for a while and gave us a nice show.

Juvenile Bald Eagle

Great Egret

After that we left and headed south in the river towards the mouth of Snake Creek. If you depart from the State Park, go south in the St. Johns River. There is an island where you need to go west bordering the west bank of the river. You will find the entrance of Snake Creek after the first bend. Our time in Snake Creek was relaxing. Had the creek for ourselves and while it was a challenge to obtain a pic of wildlife, it was fun. The birds were skittish and flew away from us without giving a chance to get close. But wifey made the most of the few chances she had. The confluence of Snake Creek and Hontoon Dead River was on sight when we took a break and came out of the kayak. The boat was getting heavier by the minute and hard to handle. I had to drain the water out of it so we stop for a few minutes.

Red Bellied Woodpeckers

Bird houses in the canal

Hontoon Dead River borders the west of Hontoon Island. The boat traffic is heavy in this part of the river and today was not an exception. While we did not see anyone in Snake Creek we did encounter several motor boats in Hontoon Dead River. We headed south paddling to a small canal that connects Hontoon Dead River with the St. Johns. My wife calls that canal the Bird House canal because there are several bird houses hanging from the trees. She wants to build one and for us to come here one day and hang it from one of the trees. Do not know what to do about that since not I am not a fan of disturbing nature. But it looks nice when you paddle in that canal and see all the little houses there. There are bird houses from different states of of the nation.

Bird House

Is this an omen?

Bird House

Did You Know That? For this Did You Know That? I want to share this link with you. It provides good information about manatees and how to interact with them. It is very interesting and has a lot of good hints, suggestions and rules: Save The Manatee

Limpkin

Here are more pics of what we saw today…

Black Crowned Night Heron

Little Blue Heron

Wild Turkeys

Snake Creek scenery

Juvenile Little Blue Heron

Turtle

Great Egret

Red Bellied Woodpecker

Tufted Titmouse

Nesting Great Blue Heron

TBD

Red Shouldered Hawk

Juvenile Ibis

Belted Kingfisher

Wood Stork

Eastern Phoebe

Anhinga

Flying Ibis

Coot

Manatee

Manatees in Blue Spring Run

Manatees

Manatees

Blue Spring Run

Snowy Egret

Gator

Turtles

Miss adventures of a cat fish...

Oh snap!!!!

There is no escape...

.And the Cormorant...

Finishes the job...gulp!!!!

The park was completely full when we left at 3:30PM. The line to enter was so long that a state law enforcer officer was controlling the entrance at French Avenue. So, if you plan to visit the park try to arrive early. It gets crowded these days since the congregation of manatees in the run is a huge attraction in Central Florida.

Scenes

Snake Creek

And this is it for this one. Thanks for reading and see hope to see you next week…Ahhh...A little late but Happy New Year!!!!! See you soon for another Views From Our Kayak!!!!!