Orlando Wetlands Park - Updated

Short Tailed Hawk

Tomorrow is Mother's Day and mine came last night to spend a few days with us. So there was no way I was going to spend the day kayaking with Mom at home. But did take a short walk at Orlando Wetlands Park while Mom and Wifey went shopping. For the first time saw the bird in the opening pic, a Short Tailed Hawk. First thought it was an Osprey, because the colors but did look different. Peregrine Falcon? Looked for it when came back home...Short Tailed Hawk. Heck yeah!!! Anyways...it was a short walk and there are not too many pics to share. Non kayaking post so, straight to to the pics we go...

Least Bittern

Tri-Colored Heron

Black Bellied Whistling Duck

Gator

Snowy Egret

Snowy Egret fishing

Gotcha!!!!

Snowy Egret

Sandhill Cranes

Sandhill Crane

Sandhill Crane chick

Sandhill Crane chick

Sandhill Crane family

Chick has grown a lot in a month...

Black Bellied Whistling Ducks

Short-Tailed Hawk

   

Short-Tailed Hawk

Short-Tailed Hawk

  

Anhinga

TBD

Tri-Colored Heron

Tri-Colored Heron

Red Shouldered Hawk

TBD

Wood Stork

Wood Stork

Great Blue Heron

Great Blue Heron

Great Egret

Glossy Ibis

Black Crowned Night Heron

And that is it for this one folks. There are still pics on deck but right now do not have the time to select more. Will post them in Views From Our Kayak - Facebook. Thanks for reading and hope you come back for the next Views From Our Kayak, this time from a beautiful river, somewhere in Central Florida and with friends that are coming to visit.

Face Off( Insert Western Music here)

Hillsborough River

Barred Owl

It was tough to select the opening pic for this post.The  Barred Owl got it because  we do not see this bird too often. The owl had tough competition for the opening: A Gator, an Osprey, a Spoonie, and a Black Crowned Night Heron made it a very difficult selection this time. It was another good paddle at the Hillsborough River. Is that a surprise? I took us almost a year to go back to the Hillsborough River. The most recent time I ended up with a bite in my right hand that sent me to the ER since it doubled its size overnight. This time we hoped for a different kind of experience in that aspect.

Tri-Colored Heron

Put In/ Take Out: We used the facilities at Trout Creek Park. The Hillsborough County has done a heck of a job building parks every four miles ( I believe ) from each other along the river. There is a charge of $2 per vehicle and the honor system is use. We started at Trout Creek Park and went to the next one up river, Morris Bridge Park. Then returned to Trout Creek Park.

Hillsborough River Turtle

We started at Trout Creek Park at 8:05 AM under a gray sky. It improved as the minutes went by. We headed up river on route to Morris Bridge Park via The Nature's Classroom.  Here is what we saw in that span of our trip...

Carolina Wren

Carolina Wren

Hillsborough River Gator

Red Bellied Woodpecker

Juvenile Ibis

Tri-Colored Heron

Turtle Reflection at the Hillsborough River

Osprey...(What are you looking at?)

Scene on the Hillsborough

Great Blue Heron

Limpkin

Anhinga

Gatorrrrrrrrrrrr ahead!!!!!!

Prothonotary Warbler ( did not think we were going to see this one here)

Limpkin

Tri-Colored Heron

Tri-Colored Heron

Roseate Spoonbill (Spoonie)

Spoonie

Tri-Colored Hero

Mottled Duck

After The Nature's Classroom the river narrows and stays like that for maybe half a mile. At that point the current was swift and the river was not as high as we were expecting with all the rain we have had. The paddle through that section was a little harder than usual but it is not impossible. Then the river gets wider and the current is not a big problem anymore. It is also true that we did hit several stumps. Here is what we saw from on this section to the river on our way to Morris Bridge Park...

Great Egret

Barred Owl

Black Crowned Night Heron

Gator....It was a great day for gator viewing!!!!!!

Head On111111111

Black Crowned Night Heron

Black Crowned Night Heron

Black Crowned Night Heron

Anhinga

When we arrived at Morris Bridge Park an armada of kayaks was there, getting ready to go down river. They were a little animated (noisy I really want to say), so we decided to take our time and sat at one of the tables in the park. 40 minutes after we were on our way down river. We were back at Trout Creek Park at 1:15 PM, give or take 5. Here are our views from that section...

Cardinal (female)

Happy Face!!!!!!

Fishing Black Crowned Night Heron

Gator...The Sun was out on our way back to Trout Creek Park...so were the gators

Great Egret

Anhinga

Red Shouldered Hawk. By now we were back at The Nature's Classroom area

Red Shouldered Hawk

Osprey

Osprey...The section between The Nature's Classroom and Trout Creek Park is Osprey Country

Turtles

Pic friendly gator

OK folks. Are you done with your pics because I am back to the water...

Heyyyy!!!!!!!!

Life is good...is not it Mr. Gator?

Osprey nest

This is it for this one. Thanks for reading and hope you come back for our next post. We will be kayaking at another place and sharing with you the Views From Our Kayak. Do not forget to check Views From Our Kayak - Facebook and "Like" us, if that is the case.

Hillsborough River Scene