Wekiva River(Upper)

Swallow-Tailed Kite

A few weeks ago someone suggested that the paddle on the upper Wekiva River to Little Wekiva River was a good one. I had never done it so today went for it. Did put in at Wilson's Landings and headed South on the Wekiva River at 9:00AM. Well, good news and bad news. Bad news first; Did not find the entrance to the Little Wekiva River. Made it all the way to the Buffalo Tram Primitive Camp Site. Or did over paddle the entrance or still had ways to go. But I have paddled from Wekiwa Springs to Buffalo Tram and do not remember seeing the entrance to Little Wekiva River. To make things worst, only a few of the pics came back good since my wife did not come with me. Good news now...it was still a nice paddle and now I do have an excuse to buy a GPS ASAP. The following pic was taken on my way to the river on CR419. There is a tree near HWY 417 where an eagle can be spotted almost on a daily basis. This time the eagle was not there but this juvenile was in the nearby tree. Mom, or Dad, flew by while I was there and caught the young eagle's attention while I shoot this pic.

Juvenile Bald Eagle

Put In / Take Out: Wilson's Landings at 387 Malekean Dr, Sanford, FL. This place it is not far away from our usual put in spot when kayaking the Wekiva River; Katie's Landings. But Wilson's is at the South side of the SR46 bridge, while Katie's is in the North side at maybe 1.5 miles down river. There is no charge for using the facilities, I was expecting a payment as there is at Katie's. There is an area for dropping the canoe/ kayaks which is at a pretty good distance from the water. If you ask me Katie's Landings is a better and easier put in but I am no expert. There were no cars when I arrived at 8:45. No one in the water in the wide section of the river in front of Wilson's Landings. Lots of birds flying up and down river and a welcome party of Moorhens and Coots welcomed me in this expedition.

Moorhen

Little Blue Heron

This section of the river is wide but it narrows as you approach Wekiva Falls, a popular camping area. If I am not wrong I think they rent kayaks there too. Then the river stays narrow for a while, then you reach an open area, narrows again, opens again, and...you get the idea. It was here when the best part of the paddle happened. Heard the distinctive sound of a Swallowed-Tailed Kite. Found it circling high in the sky and tried to shoot some pics that did not come good because the distance. Since did not know at the moment kept shooting until lost the kite. Then heard it again but this time 5 Swallow-Tailed Kites crossed in front of me going West. Too high for a decent pic, which I tried anyways. Then heard the sound again but this time it came in front of me to the East bank of the river. Was lucky enough to spot between the branches a Swallow-Tailed Kite flying in my direction. Changed the camera to a setting my wife says is the best one to catch birds in flight, pointed the camera to where I thought was going to show up and held my breath. As the kite showed up flying on top of the tree tops, as they usually do, did press the button halfway to focus while following the bird and when it was sharp in the camera, pressed all the way down and started shooting like crazy. Only a few of the pics came back good but it was enough to make me feel good about this trip.

Swallow-Tailed Kite

Upper Wekiva River Turtle

The rest of the trip did not result in spectacular wildlife encounters. I was hoping for a deer, maybe a bear, but did not see any of it.  Every time there was a fork in the river paddled to the East side trying to find Little Wekiva River. One nice thing this section of the Wekiva has is the continuous changes from closed to open sections. I counted three of these transitions, being the open areas more wildlife prone. Maybe because it was my first time in this part of the river, found the scenery to be beautiful. Saw nobody else on my way up river other than a guy fishing before the first open area. That was not the case on my way down when motor boats and kayakers were the norm. Heard a Green Heron making a sound that seemed to be the one a little cat would make and just after this sighting came to a juvenile Black Crowned Night Heron that had no problems posing for pics.

Juvenile Little Blue Heron

Did You Know That? Swallow-Tailed Kites are almost always seen in the air, feed entirely on the wing, primary on insects, lizards, frogs, snakes, and small birds. They drink on the wing like a swallow, swooping low to snatch water from the surface of the river or lake. Swallow-Tailed Kites arrive in Florida from South America by late February to mid March.You will see them carrying sticks, moss and other nesting material to their chosen nesting site, which they built in the top of one of the tallest trees in a pine or a cypress stand. After the young fledge, the adults and young birds fly south again, first gathering in communal roosts in South Florida before migrating to South America. Fisheating Creek, near Lake Okeechobee, contained near 2,000 birds. You can differentiate the young from the adults by how deep is the fork in the tail. Our post on Pellicer Creek has pics of a young and an adult Swallow-Tailed Kites and you can see the difference.

Swallow-Tailed Kite

Female Anhinga in breeding plumage. Notice the blue ring around her eye.
That  is the key.

The open areas of the river are a prime Osprey habitat. Came to many ospreys and their nests in those sections. Also heard and saw Red Shouldered Hawks. I was trying to get some pics of a pair of hawks when saw it was almost noon. That made three hours in the water at the moment. The nice lady that mentioned the Little Wekiva River said that it was maybe three miles up river from Wekiva Falls. Knowing that I am not the fastest paddler on the water it was my feeling that was supposed to be close but did not know how close. Decide to push it for 30 more minutes before turning around and was 15 minutes into it when saw a familiar area. It was Buffalo Tram Primitive Camp Site, where I have paddled to in the past but out of Wekiwa Springs. A little dissapointed stopped there to stretch my legs and back thinking that the camp was empty, nobody was there and no tent was seen. But then saw a machete and a pair of sandals near the water. Also heard voices so started my paddle down river thinking how in the world I missed the Little Wekiva River.

Limpkin

The paddle down river was not even close to the one up river. At least three motor boats, one of them full of kids going down river looking for Wekiva Falls. They were noisy and to make things worst, were playing with water filled balloons. Picked up two of the balloons floating on the river. Maybe because was tired or because was upset for not finding Little Wekiva River, did not stop too many times on my way down. Had an extended adventure when turned into a blocked area and a few pic stops at the beginning, mostly for Ospreys and Hawks. But at one time decided that it was enough and started paddling until made it to Wilson's Landings at 10 before 3PM. "I need a GPS", was my thought when put the yak on the mini-van and started my drive back home. Here are more pics of what I saw at the Upper Wekiva River.

Great Egret

Anhinga (Male)

Coots

Little Blue Heron

Juvenile Black Crowned Night Heron

Great Blue Heron

Osprey

Anhinga (Juvenile)

Gator

Turtles

Red Shouldered Hawk

Ibis

Gator

Pied-Billed Grebes

Limpkin Taking a Bath

Green Heron

Osprey takes lunch to go

Gator

Green Heron

On my way home, and in the same area where saw the Juvenile Bald Eagle in the morning, this time spotted an adult Bald Eagle, maybe the Mom or maybe the Dad. Did not let the chance to pass and stopped for a last set of pics.

Bald Eagle

And that is it for this one. Here is the link for all the pics for this trip: Upper Wekiva River.

Thanks for reading and see you next week on another Views From Our Kayak.

Upper Wekiva River Scene

Viera Wetlands

Viera Wetlands'Otter Stretches

This post would not belong here because it is not a view from a kayak. It is not even a view from our feet. It is a view from our vehicle. But I am not about to start a spin off of Views From Our Kayak so here it goes.

Is not that cute?

Wifey did not want to go kayaking today, my Friday off, so decided to take her to a place where she would not had to walk. Viera Wetlands was the place. I have read some posts about this place so paid a visit today. The place is incredible. We saw so many forms of wildlife, including a Least Bittern, something we had not seen before. Did not have a chance for a pic but the we admired it for maybe 10 seconds, flying beside us.

Loggerhead Shrike

Here is the link with information about this wonderful location: Ritch Grissom Memorial Wetlands at Viera. I am going to leave this one here. Just came back from playing two softball games, going kayaking tomorrow, and am not 20 anymore. Here is the link with the Photobucket slideshow: Viera Wetlands. A couple more to finish.

Great Blue Heron's chick

Anhinga's chick

That is it. Hope to have a post tomorrow with Views From Our Kayak.

Viera Wetlands

Hillsborough River

Jaws of Death

We have been kayaking for almost two years now and have seen tens of gators, all sizes. But until today we never saw a gator with its kill still in the mouth. That was a first so, please understand it is not a morbid thing...this is nature, it is our opening pic of this post about our trip to the Hillsborough River. A late start, no doubt about it, but a pleasant and interesting four hours at the river during a hazy day.

Roseate Spoonbill

Put In / Take Out: We did put in at Trout Creek Park in Tampa. This is part of a series of parks Hillsborough County has built to gain access to the river. There is more information in our first post about this river. Check it out here: Hillsborough River. The cost is $2.00 per vehicle.

Great Egret

Little Blue Heron

We arrived at Trout Creek Park at 11:15, in the water at 11:30. Headed up river after taking pics of a couple of Limpkins just across the put in. My wife was hoping to see Roseate Spoonbills, which we have seen in all our previous trips here and based on a report from last week on Dave's Yak Tales-Hillsborough River, I was sure she was going to see them and she did. Our pics were not coming good because the poor light. We played with a couple of settings until we got something acceptable but wifey was not happy about it. To add to the insult for some reason I cannot explain, or maybe I can...it is the Hillsborough, pics chances were all over the places. Gators, ospreys, spoonies, herons, anhingas, and more. A couple of kayakers and a motor boat came down river but other than that, the river was uncrowded with many people fishing from the observation deck near Trout Creek Park. I was just hoping form the Sun to show up to help with the pics a bit because we had a lot of good stuff in front of us.

A Two for One...Black Crowned Night Heron and a Small Gator

Limpkins

The section between Trout Creek Park and where the river narrows in incredibly rich in wildlife. After about 20 minutes my wife said "We can go home now". We had seen Black Crowned Night Herons, Spoonies, Great Egrets, Gators, Great Blue Heron, Wood Ducks, Coots, Ospreys, Vultures, and more. But we wanted to do what we have done in our trips to the Hillsborough; paddle to the next park up river, Morris Bridge Park, and return to Trout Creek Park. With the light the way it was we were close to decide to end the trip after leaving what is called Nature's Classroom Environmental Education Area. It is across this point where we saw a coyote on our first trip to the Hillsborough. My wife still remembers that day and the spot where it happened. No coyote today and lots of vultures, as usual. We decided to keep going up river once the river got narrow. We drove for almost two hours to be there so we were going to enjoy the trip as much as we could.

Osprey' at nest

Gator blocks the way on the Hillsborough River

I got a little interesting once we entered the narrow part of the river. More than once we had pic chances. In a bent there was a decent sized gator at the bank in a sunny spot, forgot to mention that the sun came out shortly before we entered the narrow-covered by trees area. Wifey asked where were going to paddle by since the gator was crowding most of it.   Good question. Decide to advance as slowly as we could to give time to the reptile to hide wherever he wanted to hide.  We did exactly that and were surprised where the gator went to hide since it disappeared across the bank. You would never think there was a gator so big under the water in a place not so deep. Scary, if you ask me.

Red Shouldered Hawk

After the gator delay we continued the trip up river with no more incidents. It was surprising for us the many gators we saw in that section of the river. We have seen them before there but this time it was like twice the amount. Maybe we have not paddle here as much as we should. The highlight of this part of the trip was a Mama Gator with two of his little ones on her back. Wifey was able to shoot a pic with the two of them on top but when we made it closer to where Mama was only one was still there. As soon as it could made it to the water while the guardian made a slow movement with the rear legs maybe to let us know she was there. Nothing spectacular happened the rest of the way. Not too many people in the water neither. We saw four kayakers in a group in the two hours that took us to reach Morris Bridge Park area. There we rested for about 20 minutes, took pics of what I hope was a Water Snake and then started our trip down river.

Water Snake...maybe a Southern? I do hope it was non venomous

Did You Know That? All water snakes in the genus Nerodia will bite if harassed. Their bite is not venomous but will defend itself vigorously when disturbed. The Southern is commonly mistaken for the venomous Cottonmouth. It is mostly nocturnal after rainfall hides under forest debris and logs.Its diet consists of frogs, tadpoles, fish, and small aquatic creatures.

Southern Water Snake

The trip down river was boring. Hit numerous stumps and did not have pics chances until we made it to the Nature's Classroom area. Now the sun was out but in our face, but it was entertaining. It got better when we made it near the mouth of Trout Creek where a huge gator was working as doorman. Here are more pics of what we saw on this trip.

Limpkin

Ibis

Gator

Black Crowned Night Heron

Snowy Egret

Cormorant

Roseate Spoonbill (aka Spoonies)

Spoonie Sticks the landing

Tri-Colored Heron

Great Egret

Anhinga

Belted Kingfisher takes off

Belted Kingfisher in flight

Great Blue Heron

Gator

Turtle

Ibis

Mottled Ducks

Little Blue Heron

Osprey

Eastern Phoebe

Mommy Gator with a little one in the back

Butterfly

Red Shouldered Hawk

Black Crowned Night Heron

Wood Stork

Little Gator

Wood Storks

Spoonie

Spoonie

Gator

Spoonies

Gator

Big Gator and its kill

Turtle

Black Crowned Night Heron

Gator at Osprey Point

Osprey

 And that is it for this one. Here is the link to the Photobucket slideshow album with more pics of this and past trips to the Hillsborough River. Thanks for reading and see you soon on another Views From Our Kayak.

Trout Creek mouth Doorman