Merritt Island and some more

Road Gator

The kayaking plan was a bust. Thanks to the weather man, once again, the plan to kayak Haulover Canal went to the trash can in a hurry. Too choppy when we arrived. Light chop was the forecast and it was OK, we have dealt with it in the past. But it was way worst at Haulover Canal when we arrived there. A moderate breeze and lots of white caps and the water of the Indian River was like never before. It looked brownish, not even tan. I know better than kayaking with my wife under those conditions so accepted defeat and proposed a quick tour around a couple of places at Merritt Island and wifey gladly accepted. I am going to keep this short but wanted to tell you that the opening pic star was at the side of the road. A pretty big specimen that brought the attention of another driver and us. Impressive the way it walked in reverse back to the water. Anyways, let me start with those pics.

Once out of Haulover Canal we drove to the Manatee Observation Area, which was remodeled and have to say that regardless what was there before, it was a heck of a job. It looks very nice. There were manatees in the water and it was a little odd to see them from there. I am used to see them up close next to the kayak...

Then at Bair's Cove...

And we saw more than manatees at Bair's Cove...

Green Heron

Roseate Spoonbill flying high

Brown Pelican

Sea Gull

Aerial battle...Sea Gull vs Little Bird. Little Bird won it

Sea Gull

Sea Gull

After Bair's Cove we drove to the Scrub Ridge to see Scrub Jays. We saw nothing there so drove to Black Point Wildlife Drive. On our way there we saw an Osprey in the power pole.

Osprey

There were not too many things to shoot pics at the wildlife drive...

Green Heron

Black Necked Stilt(left) and American Avocet(right)

Then, on our way home I spotted an eagle on the top of a pole, near the Saint Johns River. We parked in a bridge and wifey shoot some long distance pics at the eagle, that flew to the ground as soon as she started. Not the best pics because the distance but, we had fun looking at the eagle...

(Insert Olympic Gymnastic commentator's voice here) Here comes the eagle in it's last pass for the gold medal....

In in the air...beautiful form...

And here comes the landing....

And it sticks it!!!!!!!!!!

Wow...this is big...big....big....

The Bald Eagle is looking at the gold for that routine...

And that is all for this one folks. I hope to be back in the kayak this coming week, if nothing else goes wrong. So far have not been too lucky but will do my best to share more of the Views From Our Kayak next time.