Views From Our Kayak: October 2012

Friday, October 12, 2012

Lower Wekiva River

Young Buck at Wekiva Park Dr

Joanne, this is one is for you!!!! You are probably asking who is Joanne so I am going to tell you. Joanne is half of the Wekiva River Angels, Joanne and Pam, and is recovering from a health issue. She cannot go kayaking right now so today we kayaked one of the places she frequently goes: The Lower Wekiva River out of Katie's Landings. We had an excellent short time in the water, a few minutes over three hours, and on our way there. The opening pic was shot at Wekiva Park Dr, a few meters away from Katie's Landings. Was not the only deer sight of the paddle.

A frog for the Little Blue Heron's breakfast

Put In/Take Out: Katie's Landings in Sanford, FL. Click the link for location. It is an honor system, meaning that you leave your payment, $3.00 per vehicle, at the pay box, hang the stub in your rear view mirror and you are good to go. Enjoy the river.

Eastern Phoebe

The beginning of the day was a roller coaster. We hit a high when the buck on the opening pic cut in front of us in Wekiva Park Dr. Then a low at Katie's Landings after paying and getting ready to leave the yak at the river. I will let the next two pics tell you the story at that time.

Sign at Katie's Landings

No comments

Not going to comment on what happened when he dropped the canoe into the river and then tried to drive the trailer away, ripping the chain off and rolling the trailer tires over his wife's foot, making my wife scream to warn him. Let us move on.

Female Common Yellowthroat

Long story short, I do not have too much time to finish this post, we spent about 20 minutes across Katie's, pushed our way west of the small island north of the put in, paddled down river for a little less than one hour and 45 minutes before turning around back to Katie's. We did so after seeing a doe with a fawn about half a mile down river from the high grounds some people use illegally as a camping site.

Green Heron

Before showing you the rest of the pics let me share with you something I saw that, at least for me, defies common sense and logic.

Scuba divers on the Wekiva River

I asked them how was the visibility and one of them told it was just two feet. Way to go in a gator infested river. I am pretty sure they are pros and they know what they are doing. It just baffles me. Do not know folks but common sense seems to be lost here but that is just my opinion. By the way, they made it safely out of there. Saw their boat at full speed going south just before leaving Katie's Landings on our way home.

Lower Wekiva River deer

Here are the pics of what we saw today...

Buck at Wekiva Park Dr

Common Yellowthroat

Little Blue Heron

Green Heron

Tri-Colored Heron

Little Blue Heron

Ibis

Snowy Egret

Daffy Duck

Belted Kingfisher

Limpkin

Turtle

Great Blue Heron

Anhinga

Gator

Baby gators

And a few of the deer pics we took before turning around. Were not able to get a pic of the fawn, who ran deep into the forest.

At the right of the pic you can see the silhouette of the fawn

I found that funny

Gator

Baby gator

Eastern Phoebe

Gator

Turtle and a Moorhen

Red Shouldered Hawk

And that is it for this one. Thanks for reading and hope you return for the next post when we will share more Views From Our Kayak.

An old friend...the 417/419 Bald Eagle. We saw it on our way back home.

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Haulover Canal

Black Skimmer

Good news and bad news. Good news first!!!! Team Views From Our Kayak did paddle together again. Bad news...Wait...There are no bad news. It was one of our shortest paddles ever at this location, barely three hours, but we came out pretty satisfied with the way it went. As I mentioned in the preview, changed the opening pic. The Black Skimmer is a colorful bird and we do not see too often. But today we had plenty of pic chances and wifey took advantage of it.

Manatee at the Indian River

Put In / Take Out: As usual, we used put in at the end of the dirt road north-west of the draw bridge over Haulover Canal. Check one of our previous posts about Haulover Canal for the location. If you are wondering how much it cost...well...is free.

Osprey

Ruddy Turnstone

The kayak was in the waters of the Indian River, at the West end of Haulover Canal, by 9:10 AM. We headed west to Mullet Head Island, which is a bird sanctuary. Did not make it there right away. Stopped on our way there when we spotted manatees on the Indian River. The mammals were a little busy preserving the species. Just to let you know, it is not a good idea to be anywhere close to frisky manatees. That being said we gave them a lot of room and wifey tried some long distance shots. I promised her she will have closer looks on the sea cows at Bairs Cove, a place where manatees like to hang out. It is not a sure thing but chances are very good you will see manatees there. It worked for us

Cormorants at Mullet Head Island

I will not bore you to sleep with this post. It was a very short one for no other reason than the heat. It was very hot there today and after two hours I was exhausted. When wifey said she wanted to finish the paddle I did not protest this time. That gained me some brownie points. Just to let you know, we saw our only dolphin of the day at the small cove south of the west entrance of Haulover Canal. The dolphin was hunting and we observed it for some minutes. Then we headed Bairs Cove where wifey had a good time shooting pics of curious manatees. One other comment I have about this trip: The canal seemed today like a manatee highway. They were on the move. Maybe because they are looking for food after the bacteria event that affected the sea grass a month ago.

Brown Pelican

Black Skimmer

Did You Know That? The Black Skimmer is the only American representative of the skimmer family, being the other members the African and the Indian Skimmers. It is a bird you can see during the day but its habits are mostly crepuscular, meaning that you can see them during dusk and dawn. The touch method it uses to get food allows it to be successful catching fish during the night too. The Black Skimmer's jaws are equal in length when they hatch but the lower mandible is already 1 cm longer than the upper one by the fourth week. I do think they are one the most beautiful and colorful birds you can see around here.