Views From Our Kayak: Haulover Canal

Friday, August 17, 2018

Haulover Canal

Reddish Egret

A friend from Wyoming was visiting Florida and asked me about a good place to see manatees. I offered to take her and her friend, a wildlife professor at Purdue University, to Haulover Canal. Here is what happened that morning.

Manatee Mating Mat

Put In / Take Out: End of dirt road at the North West side of the canal. There are plenty of posts from this location in this blog. Feel free to check them for exact location. I have posted the GPS coordinates in some of them.

Brown Pelican

Did the usual counterclockwise trip around Mullet Head Island. The waters of the Indian River were a bit choppy. The first leg of the trip was bumpy but once we made it to the island area it did not matter. Dr. Flaherty, my friend's friend, told me she had never seen so many different bird species together. Here is a sample of what we saw:

Woodstorks

Tri-Colored Heron

Brown Pelican

Great Blue Heron

Rudy Turnstones

TBD

I missed a lot of pics chances and other pics came back not good enough, most likely because the bumpy set up. We finished circling the island and headed back to see what they came to see; manatees. To Bair's Cove we went, spotting a couple of dolphins on our way there..

I see you!!!!!!

Manatees were very active at Bair's Cove

Manatee comes close to my kayak

Head Shot!!!!!!

Christina and Liz are entertained by a curious manatee

Osprey

Offered to take our guests to the other end of the canal, Mosquito Lagoon, so they could have the whole experience. I thought that maybe would have the chance to see dolphins. We did not make it. There was a manatee mating mat frenzy at the Observation Deck area, with manatees completely coming out of the water and lots splash and tail splashes...