Econlockhatchee River - Snow Hill Rd Bridge to C.S. Lee Park

Econlockhatchee River Bald Eagle

Back to the water. Team Views From Our Kayak returned to the paddles after nearly a month without kayaking. Cannot do that too often. Picked an easy location close from home and kayaked the lower section of the Econlockhatchee River. A great day for eagle viewing, 5 sightings, and a huge disappointing moment. But will go back to that later. Now let us go back to business.

Cardinal

Put In/ Take Out: One of these weird times when we use a shuttle system. Since this is close from home we do not have any problem driving our two vehicles. Left one of them at the Take Out and went back to the Put In. The put in was the Snow Hill Rd Bridge over the Econlockhatchee River. There is no fee. The slope leading to the river had suffered some erosion and someone thought that putting concrete slabs would fix the problem. Now it is a little harder to carry your boat to the water without slipping and falling on your six. I would advice to use the piece of bike trail close to the power pole. The Take Out was the C.S. Lee Park on SR46.

Red Shouldered Hawk

Bald Eagle

We started our trip at 8:15AM, early for our standards. The Econ is running high and we were expecting an easy paddle down river, which was not thanks to a strong wind in our face that many times negated the current. But there was something we were expecting and that should be expected every time you paddle the Econ: eagles and gators. Anything else other than that you can consider that an extra, a bonus. For some reason the Econ is not huge display of wildlife but there is no place with a higher probability of seeing bald eagles than the Econ River. So 15 minutes in our paddle the first eagle sighting...or sort of. The eagle  saw us first and flew out of a low branch over the river 20 feet in front of us. The Sun was in our face and we did not see it until it flew away. Wifey did her best trying to capture the moment. Not the best eagle pic but I was confident we were going to have more chances later in the trip and, heck we had some.

Belted Kingfisher

Bald Eagles

We had our first break just after crossing under the 500kV power lines. There I drained the water inside our sluggish kayak in a sandy bank. Wifey was a little concerned about the lack of pic chances but I kept saying things were going to get better and for her to keep her eyes open for eagles. She asked me to keep my eyes open for the big gators populating the Econ. Just to end any expectation of pics showing big gators, we did not see any big ones. Saw a few small ones. But on the eagle part we had a blast. Five different eagle sightings, including the one already mentioned. Two of those sightings involved a pair of eagles, and one of them made me feel ashamed to be a human being. I spotted an eagle on a dead tree. But as we approached lost our angle and lost the tree.  As we looked for a place from where we can see the eagle we heard two things. One of them was exciting, the other scary.

Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle

While we looked for a better angle to view the eagle we heard the sound the eagles make when they are calling a mate. It is very similar to the Ospreys' but the eagles' has a higher pitch. Wifey told me she saw something flying behind the trees in a particular area so we paddled close to that area. We found a spot and true, there were two eagles now in the dead tree but the current and our momentum moved us out of the spot so had to paddle back. Was doing just that when heard a gun shot, then another, and another. It is not the first time I hear gun shots in the Econ so did not put too much thinking on it. We found the place from where we could see both eagles and we were able to shoot a pic. When we were ready to shoot another pic the eagles left the tree in a hurry as we heard another gun shot. It looked like someone was trying to shoot down the eagles. The gun shots stopped and three guys in motorized canoe came up river. I was tempted to ask them if that was them shooting at the eagles but decided against it. There is no tell what an idiot shooting at defenseless birds would do if confronted and my only weapon is...wait...I do not have a weapon. We were concerned for a few minutes because we did not see to where the eagles flew.  But then felt better when heard the eagles again somewhere deep in the forest.

Gator

Sadly that was the most memorable part of our trip. It beat the first two eagles sighting and the last one, near the SR46 bridge, when one eagle flew over us. We were disgusted for the rest of the trip. But, taking that incident out of the equation it was a heck of a paddle. Here are more pics of what we saw, including the "bonuses"...

Cardinal

Red Shouldered Hawk

Gator

Great Blue Heron

Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle

Tri-Colored Heron

Gator

Belted Kingfisher

Wood Stork

Roseate Spoonbills (Spoonies)

Spoonies

Spoonies

Spoonies

The lower section of the Econ changes as you go down river. As you leave the the section of the forest it becomes open and cattle area. There is shelter where we took our last break of the trip. The shelter is little more than 2 miles away from C.S. Lee park. We saw more wading birds in this area, specially Great Egrets, who were there by dozens.

Belted Kingfisher

Great Blue Heron

Glossy Ibis

Great Egret

????? Not sure about those

Great Egret

Great Egret

Snowy Egret

Bald Eagle

And now, a few scenic pics to finish...

Econlockhatchee River

Econlockhatchee River

Shelter at the Econ

That is it for this one. Thanks for reading and see you soon, maybe this Monday, from one of my favorite spots in Central Florida. Looking forward to share more Views From Our Kayak.

Econlockhatchee River