Hillsborough River

Great Blue Heron at Trout Creek

Trout Creek Gator

It is Sunday afternoon when I am finishing this post from our Saturday's trip. That means it is going to be short since I may have forgotten details about it. But that is not a bad thing. We will go straight to the pics and omit the boring details. It was not a long paddle after all because the conditions of the river. Still a scenic and exciting paddle in the Hillsborough River. We had family visiting this weekend and that brought us to the Tampa area. No problem. This is a place you can paddle again, again, and again and will still be  like you are there for the first time. We were here not so long ago and this trip was quite different but still a great one.

Limpkin

Put in / Take Out: We put in at Trout Creek Park. Please check this link, Trout Creek Park, or the post of our first visit to the Hillsborough River for more details.

Tri-Colored Heron

Turtle

We were in the water around 11AM, another late start, and planned on paddling to Morris Bridge Road Park, take a break there and return back to Trout Creek Park. This is our usual routine when we go to the Hillsborough River. This time my wife suggested to paddle Trout Creek, its confluence with the river is near the put in and is home to huge alligators. We saw a big one the first time we paddled into it and a another biggie was at the mouth of the creek during our most recent trip. This time it was not different. We did not paddle too deep into the creek because it was covered by a thin layer of small leaves and made it a bit harder to move forward. But we did see a big gator jumping into the creek, maybe a 10' one, and another small gator swimming in front of us. A Great Blue Heron and a Limpkin also greeted us at Trout Creek. We were a little dissapointed when we turned around. It looked promising but took some effort to paddle our 13' orange yak thru the layer of vegetation.

Osprey's lunch time

Once back on the river we headed north, upriver, towards Nature's Classroom, an area where usually you will see many different forms of wildlife. On our way there we saw many ospreys, flying and nesting, and lots of Roseate Spoonbills. That made the day for my wife, who loves those funny looking birds. Lots of Great Egrets and Great Blue Herons. A few gators here and there, woodpeckers crossing from side to side, and buzzards, maaaaaaaaaaany buzzards. But let me show you pics of a beautiful and weird looking bird: the Roseate Spoonbill (Spoonie):

Roseate Spoonbills. The one in the left is an adult and the other one is a juvenile.

Spoonies

Roseate Spoonbill

Spoonies

From left to right; Adult and Juvenile Roseate Spoonbills. The young one still has feathers in the head.

Roseate Spoonbill

Did You Know That? A way to differentiate between the adult and the juvenile Spoonie is the head. The young ones will still have feathers in the head while the adults are bald. Already gave you a heads up in the pics above. The head of an adult Spoonie will look greenish except when they are in mating season, when it will look golden. The spoonie's chicks will not have a spoon shaped bill. That will happen as they grow. There are only six species of spoonbills in the world but the the Roseate Spoonbill is the only pink one. They got their pink color from the crustacean they feed of, that feed of algae. Talk about the effects of the food chain. They are very social birds and will nest in colonies and will fly in flocks. The oldest Spoonie on record was lived 16 years and was a banded one founded in Florida. The Spoonies do not mate for life but they keep the same mate for the breeding season. The female will lay up to four eggs, which both parents will take turns clutching, and also both parents will feed the chicks. When the little Spoonies can fly they do so but staying close to the nest. Mom and Dad will still take care of them until the chicks master the art of flying. After that they leave and the parent's job is done.

Roseate Spoonbill

Let us take this break and go flying...

Osprey

Little Blue Heron

Roseate Spoonbill

Snowy Egret

Juvenile Little Blue Heron

We turned around after the Nature's Classroom. The Hillsborough River is low and it was tough to paddle up river in some areas. The first time we paddled here it was not as low and was very hard to go in the twisty and stump filled section of the river between Trout Creek Park and Morris Bridge. So this time we cut our losses and returned to Trout Creek. Here are more pics of what we saw on our trip.

Anhinga

Snail. We found an area with lots of these things

Little Blue Heron

Juvenile and Adult Ibis

Limkpins

Black Crowned Night Heron

Great Blue Heron

Great Egret

Motttled Ducks

Black Crowned Night Heron

Gator

Juvenile Little Blue Heron

Yooohooo...Squirrel at Trout Creek Park

We did drive to Morris Bridge Park and took a walk around the boardwalk there. Here is what we saw. If someone now the name of the three unidentified birds please let me know.

Red Bellied Woodpecker

Cardinal

Gator

Gator's smiling? Not really. Have heard that the open mouth is a cooling technique

A big fish

This is my best side Dude

Turtle

Northern Parula(???)

Great Crested Flycatcher

Great Crested Flycatcher

And that is all folks. Here is the link for the Photobucket slideshow containing pics from this and past trips to this rive. Thanks for reading and hope you come back next week for more Views From Our Kayak.