Hillsborough River

Jaws of Death

We have been kayaking for almost two years now and have seen tens of gators, all sizes. But until today we never saw a gator with its kill still in the mouth. That was a first so, please understand it is not a morbid thing...this is nature, it is our opening pic of this post about our trip to the Hillsborough River. A late start, no doubt about it, but a pleasant and interesting four hours at the river during a hazy day.

Roseate Spoonbill

Put In / Take Out: We did put in at Trout Creek Park in Tampa. This is part of a series of parks Hillsborough County has built to gain access to the river. There is more information in our first post about this river. Check it out here: Hillsborough River. The cost is $2.00 per vehicle.

Great Egret

Little Blue Heron

We arrived at Trout Creek Park at 11:15, in the water at 11:30. Headed up river after taking pics of a couple of Limpkins just across the put in. My wife was hoping to see Roseate Spoonbills, which we have seen in all our previous trips here and based on a report from last week on Dave's Yak Tales-Hillsborough River, I was sure she was going to see them and she did. Our pics were not coming good because the poor light. We played with a couple of settings until we got something acceptable but wifey was not happy about it. To add to the insult for some reason I cannot explain, or maybe I can...it is the Hillsborough, pics chances were all over the places. Gators, ospreys, spoonies, herons, anhingas, and more. A couple of kayakers and a motor boat came down river but other than that, the river was uncrowded with many people fishing from the observation deck near Trout Creek Park. I was just hoping form the Sun to show up to help with the pics a bit because we had a lot of good stuff in front of us.

A Two for One...Black Crowned Night Heron and a Small Gator

Limpkins

The section between Trout Creek Park and where the river narrows in incredibly rich in wildlife. After about 20 minutes my wife said "We can go home now". We had seen Black Crowned Night Herons, Spoonies, Great Egrets, Gators, Great Blue Heron, Wood Ducks, Coots, Ospreys, Vultures, and more. But we wanted to do what we have done in our trips to the Hillsborough; paddle to the next park up river, Morris Bridge Park, and return to Trout Creek Park. With the light the way it was we were close to decide to end the trip after leaving what is called Nature's Classroom Environmental Education Area. It is across this point where we saw a coyote on our first trip to the Hillsborough. My wife still remembers that day and the spot where it happened. No coyote today and lots of vultures, as usual. We decided to keep going up river once the river got narrow. We drove for almost two hours to be there so we were going to enjoy the trip as much as we could.

Osprey' at nest

Gator blocks the way on the Hillsborough River

I got a little interesting once we entered the narrow part of the river. More than once we had pic chances. In a bent there was a decent sized gator at the bank in a sunny spot, forgot to mention that the sun came out shortly before we entered the narrow-covered by trees area. Wifey asked where were going to paddle by since the gator was crowding most of it.   Good question. Decide to advance as slowly as we could to give time to the reptile to hide wherever he wanted to hide.  We did exactly that and were surprised where the gator went to hide since it disappeared across the bank. You would never think there was a gator so big under the water in a place not so deep. Scary, if you ask me.

Red Shouldered Hawk

After the gator delay we continued the trip up river with no more incidents. It was surprising for us the many gators we saw in that section of the river. We have seen them before there but this time it was like twice the amount. Maybe we have not paddle here as much as we should. The highlight of this part of the trip was a Mama Gator with two of his little ones on her back. Wifey was able to shoot a pic with the two of them on top but when we made it closer to where Mama was only one was still there. As soon as it could made it to the water while the guardian made a slow movement with the rear legs maybe to let us know she was there. Nothing spectacular happened the rest of the way. Not too many people in the water neither. We saw four kayakers in a group in the two hours that took us to reach Morris Bridge Park area. There we rested for about 20 minutes, took pics of what I hope was a Water Snake and then started our trip down river.

Water Snake...maybe a Southern? I do hope it was non venomous

Did You Know That? All water snakes in the genus Nerodia will bite if harassed. Their bite is not venomous but will defend itself vigorously when disturbed. The Southern is commonly mistaken for the venomous Cottonmouth. It is mostly nocturnal after rainfall hides under forest debris and logs.Its diet consists of frogs, tadpoles, fish, and small aquatic creatures.

Southern Water Snake

The trip down river was boring. Hit numerous stumps and did not have pics chances until we made it to the Nature's Classroom area. Now the sun was out but in our face, but it was entertaining. It got better when we made it near the mouth of Trout Creek where a huge gator was working as doorman. Here are more pics of what we saw on this trip.

Limpkin

Ibis

Gator

Black Crowned Night Heron

Snowy Egret

Cormorant

Roseate Spoonbill (aka Spoonies)

Spoonie Sticks the landing

Tri-Colored Heron

Great Egret

Anhinga

Belted Kingfisher takes off

Belted Kingfisher in flight

Great Blue Heron

Gator

Turtle

Ibis

Mottled Ducks

Little Blue Heron

Osprey

Eastern Phoebe

Mommy Gator with a little one in the back

Butterfly

Red Shouldered Hawk

Black Crowned Night Heron

Wood Stork

Little Gator

Wood Storks

Spoonie

Spoonie

Gator

Spoonies

Gator

Big Gator and its kill

Turtle

Black Crowned Night Heron

Gator at Osprey Point

Osprey

 And that is it for this one. Here is the link to the Photobucket slideshow album with more pics of this and past trips to the Hillsborough River. Thanks for reading and see you soon on another Views From Our Kayak.

Trout Creek mouth Doorman