Blue Springs - St. John River

Put in / Take Out at Blue Springs State Park

  It is Friday and time to go back to the water. We were not sure where to go. Haulover Canal was ruled out because the windy conditions. Sliver River was on my mind but it is not the kind of place we want to go with time constrains, like today. Lower Wekiva River was a real option but we were there not too long ago. Did not want to go to a place too far and have wind issues like this past weekend. So to Blue Springs we went. St. John River is wide and  if the wind is a problem you can always leave the waters of the river and kayak Snake Creek or the other canal south of it. I did not count on the weather man being wrong again when he said there was no rain in the forecast. Thank you very much.

Put in/ take out: Blue Spring State Park is one of the jewels of Central Florida. The Blue Spring dumps over 100 million gallons of water into the St. Johns River every day. To more information click on this link: Blue Springs State Park The previous pic shows the put in/take out place. My photographer took a walk to the boardwalk near the Blue Springs Run to check if there were manatees. On our previous visit hundreds of manatees were gathered in the run. This time she came back dissapointed since there were not. We put in around 8:50 AM. Wifey wanted to explore the small lagoon next to the put in so we did that.

High Flying Eagle

We had not too many pics chances at the lagoon. An anhinga was in a branch and also many vultures. Saw a Great Blue Heron but flew away as we approached. Decided to go somewhere else but heard a hawk and looked for it. A red shouldered hawk came flying high and screaming like crazy. Another hawk answered the call but we did not see it. It was then when an eagle came into the scene high in the sky. It was like the sheriff arrived. Vultures gave the eagle some room while the hawk decided to go to another place.  We spent several minutes admiring the eagle flying in circles over the lagoon until it flew North and disappeared.

Great Blue Heron's Nest

We headed south with the wind on our back looking for the canals south and west of the put in. The wind was blowing hard and wanted to find to cover from it in the waters of Snake Creek. But some gray clouds showed up and we decide to wait and see what was going to happen so did explore the west side of a small island near where Snake Creek joins the St. John. Two kayakers were right behind us when I spotted Great Blue Heron in a nest. After the pics session we continued our paddle and then realized that the Sun was not there anymore. My wife looked up and said “It is going to rain”. She convinced me to return to the put in just in case.

Coast Guard Patrol Boat

As we headed back and the dark clouds completely covered the area and I had some thoughts about the weather forecast. Not sure if I can repeat them here. A Coast Guard boat patrol was in the river. A pic is included because I am a Coast Guard wannabee; wanted to join them when I was young. Another boat came heading north behind the Coast Guard's. When we finally arrived to the area of the State Park, now our take out place, there was a glimpse of the Sun and we continued to another small island west of the end of French Avenue. We have seen manatees in that area before and were just hoping, but not this time.

St. John River Scene

Exploring the area we saw a great egret, a sandhill crane, coots, moorhens, and a snowy egret. We wanted to keep going but it started to drizzle and it looked really bad this time. Back to Blue Spring State Park we went, this time for good. Lady good luck was with us and we had time to run and take cover as the rain came down hard. It was barely 11:00AM so it was just a two hour paddle.  Instead of waiting it was our decision to live and paddle another day. Looking back it was not that bad after all. The show of the eagle flying was really cool. It was a bummer that we had to cut it short.

Here are more pics of what we saw today:

Anhinga (female)

Anhinga (male)

Great Egret

Ibis

Little Blue Heron

Cormorant...and kayakers

Sandhill Crane

Snowy Egret

Great Blue Heron

Gator ahead...

Same gator swims near us...

And the same gator's ckose up

Coot

Hoping for a longer paddle next time. See you next week.

Here is a link for more pics from this trip and from past trips: Blue Springs

Canaveral Ntl. Seashore

Dolphin with a splitted dorsal fin

Our trip today took us to Canaveral National Seashore and the Mosquito Lagoon. For a description of this place click on this link: Canaveral National Seashore

Put in and take out: Located at the Parking Lot #7. That is past the boat ramp and turning right at the one way road. It is the second parking lot to the right. We put the yak in the water at 9:37 AM.



Dolphins in the Mosquito Lagooon

This is our second trip to Canaveral Seashore. The first time we headed North looking for Bethune Cove where manatees like to gather. Today that was the plan but I was not too confident of seeing manatees. During the winter they go to warmer waters and that means spring waters, which are 72F~74F year round. Anyways we started going north but my wife spotted a solo dolphin in the east side of the lagoon. That one kept going south and we lost it but when we were ready to continue our journey a pod of five dolphins kept us in the area for almost 45 minutes. One of the dolphins was one we saw on our previous trip. It is a dolphin with it's dorsal fin splitted. A small dolphin was always with it so we are assuming that it is Mom and baby. It was quite a show they put for us. Hitting the water with their tails and jumping all over the place. Sadly we were not able to catch any of the jumps at the right time. Ended with several pics of splashes.

 We made it to Bethune Cove where the manatees were nowhere to be found. Wifey was very dissapointed. At 12:45 we started our paddle back with the wind against and choppy waters. On top of that the several motor boats in the lagoon rocked us real good everytime they went by us. It was no fun at all. Twice in our way back we saw dolphins, one of them just in front of Turtle Mound which is a high mound that rises a soaring 50ft(ok...I know...bad joke) over the sea level.

The low tide prevented us from exploring other areas. That and the wind, but the dolphins did worth the price of the ticket. It is the first time we see so many dolphins in the same trip. There were not too many wading birds to shoot pics at. Lots of gulls, pelicans and ospreys. Here are some pics of what we saw today.


Brown Pelincan




Osprey

Baird's Sandpiper

Ibis

Cormorant

Yellow Crowned Night Heron

Royal Terns

American White Pelican

Dolphin

End of this tail...ehr...sorry...tale

For more pics from this trip click on this link: Canaveral National Seashore Slideshow
See you next week

Luis

Econlockhatchee River

February 18th was my birthday. To celebrate we kayaked the waters of the Econlockhatchee River. Here is a sample of what we saw.

Big gators


Big One #1

Raptors...


Red Shouldered Hawk

Bald Eagle

And more...

Great Blue Heron



Downy Woodpecker

Eagle's chick

It was a nice day in the water. We put in at the bridge at Snow Hill Road and headed South(upstream). Passed the Flagler Trail Bridge and kept paddling for maybe one hour and thirty minutes. We are glad we did so because we found an eagle's nest. One of the proud parents was in the nest, and two chicks. It was an unique experiece.

In addition to that the Econ has big gators. It has lots of sandy banks and when it is sunny, that is gator paradise.

It is our first post and our first blog so expect it to improve as we go. In the mean time will keep it simple. Enjoy the pics...

Big One #2 - The Big Kahuna of the day

 


Belted Kingfisher





Eagle's Nest



Little Blue Heron





Flagler Trail Bridge - South Side