Lower Wekiva River

Black Crowned Night Heron

Saturday December 10th did kayak one of of my favorites, if not my favorite, Lower Wekiva River from Katie's Landings. It was a solo so the pics are not probably what you would expect since my wife did not take them. But I had my moments and do think that the pic above was one of them.

Pileated Woodpecker

Red Shouldered Hawk

Put in/Take Out: I did arrive at Katie’s Landings, check previous posts about this Lower Wekiva River for details, shortly after 8AM, 8:08 to be precise. Got out of the minivan to grab the envelope and pay when a gentleman said “Good Morning…Luis?” I looked at him and realized he was Master Dave from Dave's Yak Tales. If you do not know, he is my kayaking mentor and I use his blog, and Green Wave, as my primary sources of information for kayaking trips. There are links to both sites in the links section.  Was not he supposed to be at Sanibel Island? Did not recognize him without the big red yak.  We chatted for a few minutes and then met again at the put in after I dropped my yak and parked the van. Was tempted to ask if I could join him but knowing the slow paddler I am and also that he prefers to kayak solo did not do it. Did spend some minutes in the area across the put in and then continued my journey down river minutes after Dave did the same. Have to say those minutes across Katie’s were very productive. Ended up with a pick of a Red Shouldered Hawk, A Great Blue Heron, a Pileated Woodpecker, Little Blue Heron, Great Egret, and a Black Crowned Night Heron that saw in the background while was taking a Little Blue Heron’s pic. A large group of kayakers was getting ready as I paddled in front of Katie’s on my way down river.

And now I introduce you the...Central Florida Expert!!!!

Barred Owl

There is a small island a few minutes down the put in. I paddled to the left side in that area and then turned again to the left to explore this small section of the river. More often than not, come out of there with some nice pics, but usually my wife is the one that shoots them. There was nothing in the river this time but something was in the west bank of the river in the forest. I heard some movement and some animal growling. Expecting to see a bear did paddle up and down the area for almost 45 minutes. Did hear the growling continuously but did not see a thing. Whatever was it was moving around because the sound was not coming from the same spot all the time. In that period of time the large group of kayakers paddled by me. A few minutes after I gave up and decided to keep going down river when, paddling under a tree branch something came out of it scaring the heck out of me, since I was still looking for whatever was in the forest. The bird that flew out of the tree was a barred own and knowing that my wife would love to have an owl pic paddled upriver all the way to the small island. Shoot a couple of pics but the owl moved inside the cover of the trees so nothing to call about out of this stop. A Green Heron decided to show up and gave me some pic chances.

Green Heron

Limpkin

The rest of the trip down river was relax and nice. Saw a gentleman fishing and no motor boats. The day was almost perfect with a nice temperature and a breeze coming from the north. Just needed my wife to be with me to make it perfect. Have to admit I do not enjoy paddling without her. It is different because I pay more attention to the sounds in the forest but not having her to comment and to take care of the pics thing make my solo paddles something I do not want to do often. The Sun came up and but not too many gators in the river. Saw several small ones and only a medium sized gator. It was close to noon, my auto proclaimed time to turn around, when saw Master Dave coming up river. For some reason I did not recognize where I was and had no good idea how far was I from the mouth of Blackwater Creek. So asked Dave and he told me I was like two minutes away from it so decided to keep going. Those two minutes turned into four for me…five to be exact, after stopped to shoot pics at the Black Crowned Night Heron, the opening pic of this post, and the star of the Did You Know That?

Black Crowned Night Heron

Did You Know That?

Black Crowned Night Heron

Black Crowned Night Herons do not have the body of the birds in the heron family. They are stocky, have shorter bills, legs, and necks than their egrets cousins and other herons. In their resting position their posture is normally hunched but when hunting they extend their necks and look more than other wading birds. You can differentiate between an adult and a young by looking at the eyes. The adult’s are red and the young’s are orange. Also the legs are different with the adult having yellow legs and the young having yellowish-green legs. You will easily identify the immature birds by their plumage, which is dull gray-brown on their heads, wings, and backs. The Black Crowned Night Herons will nest in colonies and their nests will usually be under the tree line to hide the nests from air predators. When they are breeding you will see a long white feather in the back of the head. During the courtship they are funny as heck. It begins with the male birds bowing, stretching, rocking from foot to foot, hissing, and bill clapping. That is to impress the ladies. Once a pair is bonded the birds will spend a good deal of time preening their mates, rubbing their bills over their heads, necks, and backs.  The female will lay three to five pale blue eggs and both parents will incubate for 24 to 26 days. It is believed that the Black Crowned Night Herons do not recognize their own chicks and will brood chicks not their own. The immature birds will leave the nest at six to seven weeks of age. They will not acquire full adult plumage until they are a year old and may not breed until their second year. Their diet consist on aquatic invertebrates, small fish, lizards, snakes, eggs, rodents, crabs, mollusks and young of other birds.

Juvenile Little Blue Heron

My clock had 12:00 when I finally turned around and here is when it got tricky, stupid and exciting.  I did not follow the same route on my way upriver and thinking that it would take me to the main channel anyways paddled at the now left side of the river out of Blackwater Creek.  After 15 minutes going up reached a downed tree and had to go back to the mouth of the creek.  It was cloudy at the moment and rain was imminent but that did not stop me to make a pic pause for a Wood Stork. Took me one hour and thirty minutes, included the extended detour into the downed tree, to reach the high ground area where most people stop in the river. I had to take a break and stretch my legs and so did I. Had a sandwich and continued my trip up river after twenty minutes. On my return trip saw a pair of ladies in kayaks coming down,  a large group of nine kayaks and a canoe, a motor boat and then another pair of kayakers. More traffic than in the morning. I do not remember how long was my return trip but I had the yak on top of the minivan by 3:15PM.

Great Blue Heron

Pileated Woodpecker

Great Egret

Little Blue Heron

Eastern Phoebe

Little Blue Heron

Anhinga

Green Heron

Robin

Ibis

Turtle

Anhinga

Ibis' Flock

Limpkin

Turtle

Gator

Wood Stork

Cormorant

Lurking gator

Great Egret

Red Shouldered Hawk

Gator

Ibis pair

Great Blue Heron

Moorhen

Juvenile Blue Heron dancing Thriller!!!!!

For the rest of the pics from this trip and the ones from past paddles at the Lower Wekiva River just click on the link to the Photobucket Lower Wekiva River album.

That is it for this one. Hope you come back next week for another Views From Our Kayak.

Lower Wekiva River

Silver River

Black Bear

There are times when you pick the worst possible moment to do something and you still make the most out of it. When we arrived at Ray Wayside Park in Ocala it was as crowded as you can imagine. People all over the put in area, the parking lot for cars without trailers was completely full and no more spots even in the outflow area. The reason was a kayak/canoe race organized by the Competitive Paddle Association of somewhere I cannot remember. We had to wait until the first wave of competitors left to start going and before we left the canal leading to Silver River, had to move to the side because the second wave of competitors. After that it was a very nice day at the Silver River.

Bald Eagle

 Put In/ Take Out: Ray Wayside at Highway 40 in Ocala. Here is a link with detailed information about the location of Ray Wayside Park: http://www.marioncountyfl.org/Parks/Pr_Directory/Park_RayWayside.aspx

Great Blue Heron

Great Egret

After the competitors left we had the river to ourselves, well, not really. We had to paddle by a large group of kayakers, maybe ten of them, who were led by a guide I have seen before at Silver River. Once we paddled by them, then we had the river for ourselves until the racers came down river. We saw only one motor boat on the river, which was a nice surprise. Thirty minutes into our paddle we came to a monkey troop.  My wife had a field day with them as they performed acrobatics stunts on top and from branches to branches. Of course, it was her first time back to Silver River after the monkey incident we had earlier this year and I was sure we kept our distance from the monkeys. If you have not read it yet, check our first post about Silver River on this blog and you will see what I am talking about. Stayed in the area until we heard the group of kayakers we left behind coming.

Flying Monkey

Let me share with you a few monkey pics before we move on. You come here for the pics anyways so let me do the right thing...

Silver River Monkey

Silver River Rhesus Monkey

Mama Gator

After that it was a nice, easy and quiet paddle. We arrived at the head springs around 1:00PM, paddled around the area, and let the current push us down while we ate some snacks. Did not advance too much because had a strong wind in our face. Once we left the state park area the wind was not much of a problem and we enjoyed a nice ride down river. As a matter of fact my wife enjoyed it better since did not paddle and I took care of moving us and she had the camera ready. There were plenty of pic chances in the afternoon because the sun came out and it was beautiful. In the morning it was not as sunny since many times we went under cloud cover. The gators were all over the place and we saw several, and I mean several baby gators. At one vegetation mat we counted about 6 little ones in one side and about 4 more just 20 feet away. We even heard them chirping and while wifey had her moment with the camera I did watch for mama gator.

Do you see what I see?

Alligator snapping turtle

At the park canoe and kayak ramp we stopped to stretch our legs. My wife had a conversation with a lady that came by while I drained the water inside the yak. After I saw the amount of water that was inside it, was surprised we did not sink. Have to do something to fix our orange sit on top boat.  She also spent some time taking pics of an alligator snapping turtle. Some months ago we took a pic of one in this same location. Here it is the pic we took that day:alligator snapping turtle. I am wondering if it is the same one and it probably is. No underwater pics this time since our UW camera died last summer. There was also a small gator that was not afraid of coming close to the ramp while we were there. Most likely is used to humans feeding him because it is a small one and “looks so cute and funny” as my wife said. Had to remind her that the cute little gator will grow to a huge mean big one and then, there could be trouble.

Belted Kingfisher

Gator and canoeists

We made it back to Ray Wayside close to 4:30PM and started our drive back home. My wife decided to keep the camera on hand because we have seen deer on the side of the road two or three times. That decision turned to be a great one. At Highway 40, where the East bound lanes turn into two for a passing lane we saw a bear crossing the highway during one of our trips. My wife was looking at the pics in the camera when decided to take a break of that task just after we arrived at that area. Less than thirty seconds into that area wifey started saying “bear…bear…bear”. I looked to the side of the road after the first time and saw a black shadow at the edge of the vegetation to my right. Looked in my rear view mirror and no car was near so pulled to the side of the road and stopped about 100 or 120 feet  east of the bear. Wifey was so excited and nervous that tried to shoot a pic with the camera lens cover still on. She finally was able to gather herself and shoot a couple of pics.

Wood Duck

Black Bear

Did you know that? The Florida Black Bear is a cousin of the American Black Bear and it is predominantly nocturnal and elusive, except when mating. It is very reclusive and does not seek human contact. There has never been a recorded human death in Florida caused by a Florida Black Bear. In fact, since the beginning of the 20^th century there have not been any recorded incidents of serious human injury. Myths about the ferocious mother bear protecting her cubs are just myths. A mother bear is actually more likely to flee a human encounter and leave her cubs behind than to stand and defend them. Just be wise and do not test this statement. Such an encounter would almost certainly lead to the eventual death of the young cubs since they are totally dependent on their mother for care. That being said, never go near an occupied bear den space, and always gives a denning mother bear a wide berth to protect her cubs.

Gator

Here are more pics of what we saw today. Check our Photobucket album for more pics of the Silver River from this and past trips.

A small sample of what we saw today...

Red Shouldered Hawk

Little Blue Heron

Limpkin

Black Crowned Night Heron

Juvenile Black Crowned Night Heron

Eastern Phoebe

Anhinga

Turtle vs Gator...or something like that

Gator on the Silver River

Tri Colored Heron

Juvenile Little Blue Heron

Baby Gator

Turtle

Flying Great Egret

Going down!!!!

Monkeying at the Silver River

Here they come...

...and there they go

Bald Eagle

Ibis

Now this is all for this one. We hope you enjoy the pics as much as us. See you soon on another Views  From Our Kayak.

Silver River