Haulover Canal - Visit to Tank Island

Pod of dolphins

As said yesterday my Plan A did not work out. After checking the weather forecast read "smooth in the intra coastal" and decided to pay a visit to Canaveral Seashore. Planned to leave at 7AM after leaving my daughter at school and it looked like a sure thing. Think again...at 8AM we were still at home. Left the house at 9:00. I was upset for the delay and thought about not going anywhere but after reaching I95 thought about Haulover Canal and visiting Tank Island, another bird sanctuary/refuge in the Indian River. After all the conditions were perfect for that paddle.

White Pelicans

Put In/ Take Out: For information about where to put in for this trip please check one of our previous posts on this blog.

White Pelicans at Mullet Head Island

Dolphins at the Indian River

We finally had the yak in the water shortly after 10 and headed west toward Mullet Head Island. My wife said "Come on. I want to see a dolphin" when I spotted a fin to the south, and then another one, and another one. To make the long story short...five dolphins were heading to Haulover Canal and she asked me to wait for them at the west end of it. The dolphins did split. Two of them kept going east inside Haulover Canal and three turned back to the west, one of them had a blue tag on the fin. Tried to find information about the tagged dolphin but did not find a thing. The trio spent some time hunting and provided us a few nice splashes. Had to remind my photographer that we had a long paddle in front of us. Tank Island is approximately 3 miles west from the put in. She reluctantly conceded it so we kept going.

Dolphins

Mullet Head Island's White Pelicans

We did not circle Mullet Head Island this time, as we usually do as part of the YDT (Yak Dave Tour). After starting on the North East end we slowly paddle half of the island. Many cormorants and pelicans. The white pelicans forming a close group with some brown pelicans around them. The cormorants were also forming large groups. My wife was fascinated with the white pelicans and their coordination. If one moved the rest moved and followed the leader. Have to say that it looked pretty cool. The brown pelicans were located at the bushes of the island. Their peculiar sound was all over the place. Sometimes it sounds like a growl. Many small birds on Mullet Island as well. Gulls and sandpipers were wading in the shores.

White Pelican

Tank Island avian life

There is not much to say about this paddle. I forgot to keep track of the time but we explore each and every small island on our way to our destiny so cannot tell you exactly how long it took to us to reach Tank Island.  Once we were there circle it once and then went back to Haulover Canal. Tank Island is smaller than Mullet Head Island, where you can see more variety of birds. The only thing we saw at Tank Island that we did not see at Mullet Head was a flock of four juveniles Black Crowned Night Herons that went hiding on our approach. Not a chance for a pic. We did see a Black Crowned at Mullet Head Island but it was a lonely one. Honestly I do not know if we will go back there anytime soon. It is a long paddle to see the same you would see at Mullet Head. Knowing what to expect now I would rather explore other Haulover Canal areas rather than paddling back to Tank Island.

Caspian Tern

Roseate Spoonbill

On our way back to Haulover Canal we paddle by the south side of Mullet Head Island where my wife spotted one of her favorites: a Roseate Spoonbill. It was the only one we saw. By that time, it was after noon already, the white pelicans made small groups and were hunting in different areas. We were able to observe them for a few minutes. Wifey asked me to go to Bair's Cove looking for manatees. As we entered Haulover Canal one surfaced on its way west out of the canal. It came up one more time and we ended with a not so nice tail pic. Our luck was not much better at Bair's Cove since no manatees were there to be found.


Did You Know That? Dolphins have two stomachs. One is for storing food and the other one is for digesting it. Even when they have 100 teeth the dolphins only used them for grasping their prey, which they swallow. Dolphins can eat up to 30 pounds of fish in a day.

Dolphins

We ended our trip after 1:30PM. While it was smooth and an easy paddle the Sun did hit us hard. Here are more pics of what we saw:

Osprey

Osprey

Snowy Egret

Snowy Egret

Great Blue Heron

Great Blue Heron

Cormorant

Cormorant Takes Off

Brown Pelican

Brown Pelican

Brown Pelican

Black Crowned Night Heron

Roseate Spoonbill

Little Blue Heron

Great Egret

Sandpiper

That is all for this one. Here is the link for the slideshow of the pics of this and past trips to Haulover Canal.

Thanks for reading and hope you come back next week for another Views From Our Kayak.

Sandpiper