Hillsborough River

Today we kayaked at the Hillsborough River. It was our second trip to this beautiful place and, as in our first time, we came back home very satisfied with the experience. This is my second attemp to make and publish the post. It suddenly dissapeared when I was ready to publish it with all the pics and the modifications. Not fun. Anyways... Here we go again.


Roseate Spoonbill



Hillsborough River Scene



Put In/ Take Out: We put in at Trout Creek Park in Tampa. Hillsborough County has done a super job creating parks along the river, each one 4 miles apart from the other. The cost is $2.00. The next one up river is Morris Bridge Park and that was our turn around point. That was the route of our first trip  and I was really surprised my wife went for this one again. The paddling against the current was not of her liking. It was 12:30 when we put the yak in the river. Check this link for more information about the facilities along the Hillsborough River.



Hillsborough River gator



 The first section of the river is rich in wildlife. On our first trip here we were very satisfied with the view and this time was not different. There was plenty of wildlife to admire and to shoot pics at. Traffic on the river was not bad.  A couple of motor boats going very slow since it is a No Wake Zone. In this zone, between the put in and what is called the Nature’s Classroom we saw spoonbills, limpkins, ibis, great egrets, hawks, gators, vultures, and woodpeckers. The first time we paddled here saw a coyote and my photographer was hoping for it to happen again. You can only dream sometimes. It is free.

 The river was higher and a little bit slower than in our first time here. But that also gives the wading birds more room to look for food and we missed several chances of pics because the birds were too deep into the forest. It took an hour and 30 minutes for us to reach the end of the Nature’s Classroom but only because we took several pic stops. This section between the Nature’s Classroom and Morris Bridge Park is narrow most of the time. As I mentioned before, today the river was higher this time and it was a lot easier to paddle upstream, a huge difference from our first trip when my wife told me she was not paddling here never ever since it was low and fast. Never say never. The beauty of the river is worthy of the trip. Take my word on this one. Even when we did not have many pic chances we enjoyed the view. Had the chance to take pics of a midsize gator that looked like it was put there on purpose for the people to take pics of it. It was hard to miss it since Was right in front of us at one of the river bends.A pic friendly fellow. Looked at us like saying...Dude, take the pic and get lost. We did so.

Gator in the river bank

 



Limpkin



We arrived at Morris Bridge Park around 3:20, ate something and, at least I, stretched my legs and used the restrooms of the park. Mentioning this just to point that there are restrooms at every park along the river. Started our paddle back to Trout Creek at 3:45 and it was pretty smooth most of the time. We took a few pics here and there but nothing different from what we already had. One thing that was different on this trip was the amount of limpkins we saw. Several of them were in different sections of the river. We usually see one, two at the most, when we paddle in Central Florida, but that is not the case in the Hillsborough River. We arrived at the Nature’s Classroom area near 5:00 and then, again, took our sweet time shooting pics at the wildlife in this section. The first time we paddled here saw a coyote and were able to shoot pics. There was no coyote today but we saw something really cool. In a short span of the river we spotted 3 osprey nests. My wife’s was really excited. We have seen eagle’s, blue heron’, sandhill crane’s, and now osprey’s nest in our recent trips. At one of the nests Mr. and Mrs. Osprey were present. That kept us in the river more time than we expected.



Mr. & Mrs. Osprey at their nest



The yak was on top of our minivan at 6:10. I had time to clean it since there is a station with water to do that at Trout Creek Park. The only thing that I did not like is that we did not have time to explore Trout Creek, right in front of the park, and I have read reports of big gators that like to hang out there. Guess that it is the first thing we will do next time.

Here are more pics of what we saw at the Hillsborough River...

Osprey










Classic Gator Pic



Racoon



Anhinga



Great Blue Heron



Great Egret

Little Blue Heron

Pie-Billed Greebe



Black Crowned Night Heron



Madam Butterfly



Vultures at the Nature's Classroom



Woodstork

Turtles

Limpkin



Roseate Spoonbill



Hillsborough River View



More pics from this and the prwvious one here...Hillsborough River Slideshow

That is all. See you soon!!!!

Lower Wekiva River

It has been a while since the last time we went kayaking two days in a row and we had no plans to do that today. I woke up, drove my daughter to school for a rehearsal and, back home my wife tells me she had a proposal. Oh I am so easy. She did not finished telling me "Let us go kayaking" when everything was ready. Anyways the yak was still in top of our minivan. So to Katie's Landing, 35 minutes from home, we went.

Put in/take out: Katie's Landing is located at Wekiva Park Drive at Sanford, FL. Take exit 101C of I-4 and go west. Wekiva Park Drive is just before the bridge over the Wekiva River. Turn right and you will find Katie's Landing a little more than a mile ahead to your left. It is an honor system. Put your $3.00 in an evelope from the pay station, deposit the envelope, and hang the receipt in your rear view mirror. Drive to the river, well, not to the river, but to the area near the river where you can drop your yak or canoe and go back to park in one of the designated spots. Did I leave something out? Ahh...Yes I did. Enjoy the river. Does not get any easier than this.

Red Bellied Woodpecker

We had the yak in the river at 10:00 AM and started paddling near the put in area. One thing I have to tell you is that if you loose track of time you can be just there for more than an hour. It has so much wildlife that it will blow your mind. Today we just spent 40 minutes there. We saw a sandhill crane nesting and my wife/photographer took several pics of it. We also saw ibis, several red shouldered hawks flying, red bellied woodpeckers, a blue heron, moorhen, a black crowned night heron, a strork, vultures, and anhingas. All these in just that small area. We have seen glossy ibis there but not today. We also saw an eagle on our previous trip but there was no eagle today, at least not there.

We continued our trip going north with the current. Passed two fishermen in yaks and saw a third kayaker going north too. Overheard one gentleman fishing from a canoe complaining to his partner that he did not like to fish there on Saturdays...Too many people in the river. We said hello and put some salt in the wound saying..."Too many people here today...huh?"  Anyways we continued and passed Wekiva Haven, where we had seen deers before but not today.

Big Gator

Do not get me wrong; it was not a bad day at all but there was a negative. Motor boats were by the dozen. I lost count how many passed us up and down river. Even with the boats we saw many gators, all possible sizes. There was a bend where my wife spotted one huge gator and when we got closer there was another one. If I am not wrong we saw two big gators on one of our previous trips. Maybe they are the same ones. Who knows. Well, both of them left in a hurry when sensed us, which scared my brave partner a bit. A few minutes later a motor boat went by us going north. Looking ahead I saw a big gator in the east bank. Wifey tried a long distance pic because we knew the boat was going to scare the gator and it did. Slid of the bank but stayed close to it in such a way you could see half of his body. Pretty impressive dude.

Huge Gator

Nesting Sandhill Crane

Started our paddling back to Katie's at 1:00 PM. Had one or two pics stops and made it back to the now take out at 3:15PM. It was tough today because the wind and the motor boats but the Wekiva River is always a good place to be. We always see many wildlife there and looking back we only missed pics of the black crowned heron and the red shouldered hawks. Have pics of everything else we saw. The pic of the nesting sandhill crane is so nice. Also have a special pic of something we saw on our way here. Want to know what it is? Take a look at the last pic of the story.

Here are more pics of what we saw and at the end rhere is a link for more pics of this and previous trips. Hope you like the pics.

Ibis



Little Blue Heron



Moorhen



Snowy Egret

Little Blue Heron - Inmature



Killdeer



Balance Act



This November Dinner



Tri Colored Heron



Great Egret



Little Gator





Those horrible eyes!!!!!



Gator sunning in a log



Great Blue Heron



Belted Kingfisher



Osprey

Woodstork

Gator

Bald Eagle seen on our way to Wekiva River

Here is the link for more pics: Lower Wekiva River Slideshow

See you soon...

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