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Smoke in the air from Georgia -
hopefully we'll get some rain Trips this month: 8
5/2/07
The thick, choking haze from the wildfires has lifted but there was still a thin, high altitude haze in the sky. The nearly full moon was setting on my way to work this morning and it was red due to the smoke it was shining through. The moon was due to rise full just after sunset tonight so I decided that I would do my first after dinner paddle of the year and see if I could catch it. The tide was in just far enough to put in at Hannah Mills and paddle toward the Kingfish Park. Once I entered the stream that runs directly past the old marina the current was rushing in and it took a lot of effort make headway. A young man kayak fishing was drifting in on the current and as we acknowledged each other he remarked that he "sees me everywhere". It was then that I recognized him as the kayaker I had seen two weeks earlier on Pumpkin Hill. I reached the park and could see that there was on Osprey on one of the old pilings busily working on his catch. I worked my way upstream through the pilings and could see that what he had was a large flounder. I managed to paddle up to the pilings next to him and sit in an eddy created by the water rushing past the pole. I sat there for several minutes watching him twist his head almost completely in a full circle as he ripped chunks of flesh from the body. A black headed gull was sitting on the adjacent piling watching with interest and occasionally a scrap of meat would fly out which he would snatch and eat. The Osprey would occasionally look over at me and glare but for the most part he was too intent to work on his catch to worry about me. I decided to try and pull myself a little closer which caused him to chirp and fly off. I spent some time shooting the sun which, although it was a good 30 minutes away from setting, was already a small, orange ball that was being filtered through the haze. There had been a female Red Breasted Merganser sitting on the shell beach opposite the marina so I drifted over and shot her before she flushed. I headed around the corner and caught the incoming tide on the waterway, shooting some Black Bellied Plovers as I drifted north. I passed the old Osprey nest on the Manatee Zone sign and confirmed what I had suspected earlier - that it is unoccupied this year. After two of the last three fledges failed to reach maturity I think the parents may have decided to choose another site. I cut back into Hannah across from Shad Creek and headed toward the old cedar but it was empty. As I made the turn toward the pool where I put in I began seeing a pair of Dolphins rising in front of me. I drifted along with them and with my camera set on 800 ISO got a few very grainy shots. I passed another kayaker heading out who asked if I had seen a loose paddle out in the marsh. Of course I hadn't but it was nice to know that I'm not the only one who loses stuff out here. Since the sun had set way early I figured that the moon would likewise be delayed in rising so I headed home. See the pictures from this trip
5/6/07
When I got up this morning I could see a fireworks show on the horizon that was so bright that I thought it was coming from a strobe light. Once I checked the weather online I realized that it was coming from a small but intense offshore storm and that there wasn't supposed to be any wind or rain in the immediate area until the afternoon so I headed to Pumpkin Hill.
I set out at the very end of the outgoing tide and as soon as I rounded the first bend I spotted a pair of birds that I rarely see outside of Guana Lake - a pair of Black Necked stilts who were in the company of a Great Blue Heron. They were on the wrong side of the sandbar but I managed to paddle close enough to them to get a few shots off. There was a shorebird in the area with a red breast which I at first mistook as one of the Red Knots that I have heard are migrating through the area but it turned out that they were merely Dowitchers who were sporting their breeding plumage. They look very similar to the Knots but their long beaks are a dead give-a-away.
I rounded the next bend and headed down the long run leading away from the trails. I managed to get a few good shots of some Skimmers who were flying about skimming the water as they fed. A Green Heron flushed ahead of me and then hid in the grass but he never let me get close enough to shoot and I continued on toward the point. As I got close, there was an immature Great Blue feeding near the shore and I paused to shoot him. While I sat there watching him a pair of Mallards came swimming up the creek and hung out near the Heron. I paddled on to the point and as soon as I reached it Dolphins began appearing all around the area, much the same as they did the last time I was here. I spent the next 30 minutes shooting the group of five or six Dolphins as they fed all around me and I got several "face shots". I checked out the big cove beyond the point but with the tide coming in and covering up most of the oyster beds I found little there and so I turned around and caught the incoming tide home. It wasn't until I reached the put-in that I realized that I had not seen another human being all morning. Not a crabber, kayaker or fishermen in four hours - sweet! See the pictures from this trip
5/15/07
9 days since my last trip! First, a return of the wildfires, then tropical storm Andrea, then a long weekend outage at work which put me on 12 hour nights and, finally, a brisk Nor'Easter that had winds in the upper 20's yesterday when I actually had the time to paddle after a visit to the Mayo Clinic. With the forecast calling for winds close to 20 today, originally, I wasn't even going to consider going out but once I was up I could see that the wind didn't look all that bad and the sky and water looked terrific as I looked out my backyard across the marsh to Clapboard Creek. So I said to heck with common sense and cleared the cobwebs (literally) from my boat and headed toward the Ribault Club. With sandwich and beer in hand my goal was nothing more than a typical "veg-out" paddle where I could string up my hammock and take a dip. If the photo ops happened - they happened but I wasn't going to go looking for anything. I set out from the ramp against a still brisk outgoing current and stiff offshore wind. After a brief investigation of the yacht basin turned up nothing of interest I set out across the channel to the grassy island opposite the houses. As soon as I reached the other side I was shielded from the wind and found very little current there. There was a Great Blue Heron stalking a meal along the shore and I was able to get quite close to him and followed him down the bank a couple of times when he flushed. When I reached the end of the island where the river bends to the west I spotted another kayaker sitting in front of the island on the west bank of Simpsons Creek trying to use an umbrella as a sail so I headed to the Little Talbot side and set up my hammock in a fallen tree on the beach. Basically, I relaxed for the next couple of hours drinking beer, eating and swimming. There was a Reddish Egret across the way but I was pretty sure he would be gone by the time I left. Other than a pair of copulating Jetksiers down the way from me it was a pretty boring afternoon. Just what I needed. See the pictures from this trip
5/16/07
I got off earlier the night before so with Hopey at work I decided to head out fairly early and put-in at Pumpkin Hill. That all worked out well until I realized as I was unloading that I had forgotten to bring my camera. Paddling without a camera? That would be like paddling without a paddle - and it just can't be done! So - plan B, right? As I have said before - sometimes Plan B works out better than the original plan anyway. I headed back home, grabbed my camera and headed to the west end of our island where I set out into an outgoing flood tide on Browns Creek. Since there was someone anchored in front of the island where I normally shoot birds roosting I decided to skirt the eastern edge and go around the same island from the north. I scanned the six or seven prominent pine trees on the NE corner where the Great Blue Herons had nested last year. I had failed to see them on my last couple of trips and assumed that they had found another location to build their rookery. As I got closer, I could see a couple of Herons perching at the tops of the pines and I could just barely detect the signs of the paltry excuse for a nest that these birds raise their young in. They were hidden pretty well behind the pine needles so I wasn't able to get any clear shots and continued on around the corner. As I did, the noise from the road diminished somewhat and I began to hear what I assumed was the angry bark of a squirrel. I remembered how last year I had heard a similar sound and realized that instead of coming from a furry rodent that it was originating from angry young Herons who were demanding food from their haggled mothers. As I listened, I could hear that the bark was punctuated occasionally by a croak so I was fairly certain of it's origin. I scanned the trees from the north side of the island and soon saw some commotion coming from a pile of sticks where an adult Heron perched nearby. As I watched, an ugly little head rose up out of the nest and lunged at the legs of the adult with a bark. After a couple of pecks, the adult Heron had enough of its rude fledge and flew off at which time the barking subsided. I continued on around the island and headed for the runoff pond at SJRPP. I could see the Ospreys in their nest near the coal yard and it looked as if the female was tending to some unseen chicks. As I got closer, the male came swooping up and then, after seeing me, he flew off and after circling the pool a couple of times landed in the adjacent dead tree. A few Night Herons flew out from the trees near the spillway but not much else was stirring so I headed back. I decided to cut my trip short and went around the north side of the second island before cruising back by the now silent Heron nests. I paused to shoot a Heron under one of the docks along Heckscher Dr before heading back. I was amused by the sight of a Least Tern who, with a small fish in his beak, came up to another Tern on a piling and chirped loudly as he shook it in it's face. He then flew off to another Tern and performed the same act before flying away. The second Tern waited a second and then took off after him. Was it his way to get a date? If so - it worked on the second try. The first one clearly wasn't interested. See the pictures from this trip
5/20/07
I celebrated the end of my night shift a little too much last night and woke up with a terrible hangover. I figured that the best way to cure it was to hit the water and so I slowly got my rear in gear and headed for Pumpkin Hill.
I got in the water at 7 am with the blazing sun already high in the sky over Black Hammock. It was chilly enough to make me don my fleece as I headed out to catch the last of the outgoing tide. As I rounded the first bend I spotted a Great Blue Heron but as I paddled over to shoot him I spotted one of my old friends - a Roseate Spoonbill - the first one I have seen up here this year. He was a youngster with a full head of hair and just a light pink plumage. After shooting him I continued on around the next couple of bends not seeing too much. As I rounded the corner near my shrimpin' hole I was greeted by the cacophony of several dozen Black Headed Gulls who were covering the large sandbar there. They were joined by several other types of birds including a young Great Blue, several Great and Snowy Egrets and a mature Spoonbill whose dark pink shoulders stood out in contrast to the youngster I had seen earlier.
I made my way up to the point and decided to get out and walk down the road to check out the Osprey nest. I was sure that as soon as I headed down the road the Park Manger would meet me on the way. I'm not sure if its a coincidence or if he has a camera mounted somewhere but I am always guaranteed to see him at the same time every Sunday. Sure enough, as soon as I started down the road I spotted him on his bike coming my way. He stopped to chat and told me that there were a couple of chicks in the nest and a few minutes later I was in sight of the stubby tree next to the road.
I've always thought this nest was a bit of oddity. It is only 20-25 feet above the ground and not in sight of any water that I can tell and I've never seen an Osprey nest that wasn't at least in view of a retention pond. As I got close to the nest I could see the female standing in the nest but no sign of the chicks. Once I got directly beneath the nest she chirped angrily and flew off and I waited for a couple of minutes to see if the chicks would pop up in the nest but they remained hidden and silent. Mom returned a few minutes later with a large branch in her claws and after swooping up the nest she began glaring angrily at me and chirping. She began making an odd buzzing sound at the end of her chirps that I had never heard before so I knew that I had agitated her enough and headed back to the point. I thought about setting up my hammock to eat my breakfast but the yellow flies had been nailing me since I had gotten out and so I loaded up and headed on to the cove east of the flats and took a break there. The wind started to pick up while I was eating and the tide had already started coming back in so I started making my way back. As I was approaching the trails a Swallow-tailed Kite came flying above the trees but never got close enough for a shot. See the pictures from this trip
5/21/07
I had to make a return visit to the Mayo Clinic early this morning but was done with my tests and launching my boat from Six Mile Landing a little after 9 am. I found it hard to believe that it had been over six weeks since I had last been here and I was sure that I would either find lots of fuzzy balls on stilts or else they would be long gone along with their parents. As I have seen elsewhere in the area, however, everyone is on a late schedule nesting-wise and I'm not sure what the reason for it is. The marsh was full of adult Stilts running about and it was very evident that although the babies were not hatched yet there were definitely eggs in everyone's nest and it caused some very unusual behavior as they performed some very elaborate "broken wing" displays in order to lead me away from the nests.
The first thing I noticed as I set out was that the water level appeared to have dropped just a couple of inches. Once again, the area near the ramp was completely dry, brown and stubbly. As I approached the main channel I spotted a few Roseate Spoonbills and one of them was very odd looking. As I got close I realized that I was seeing for the first time an Adult Spoonbill sporting his full breeding plumage with a black band around his neck and hints of yellow in addition to the dark pink shoulders that I usually see. Hope and I have always wondered why the Spoonbills we see at the zoo look so different than what we see in the preserve so I guess for some reason the zoo Spoonies are on a different schedule. As I turned north in the main channel I was hit in the shoulder by a small fish reminding me of the infamous "Gar in the boat" incident of '06. Unscathed, I continued north stopping occasionally to photograph the Stilts as they often aggressively defended their nest. I decided to try and go as far north as I could if the water level would let me. There was one point where the channel was very silty and progress was slow but it soon opened back up again.
I decided to stay in the middle of the lake rather than skirt the western shore like usual. As I was cruising along there was suddenly a loud bang on the side of the bow of my boat and I immediately began to list to the right. At first, I assumed that I had hit a submerged log or one of the many posts that the duck hunters have placed throughout the area. I gave that thought up when whatever it was began to push against my boat with a tremendous splash as I fought to right the ship. Things calmed down quickly as I cursed loudly and tried to make sure that all my possessions were still in the boat with me. I never saw what it was but I have no doubt that it was a large Gator and I'm sure that he was as pissed off as I was. I began to pass an area that was dotted with tiny little islands that held some small clumps of vegetation. On one of these I spotted a Stilt who was picking at sticks along the shoreline of the island. I paused to observe it and it soon hopped up into the clump of vegetation and disappeared. I could see it's face peering out at me from the vegetation. As I shot she suddenly popped out of the nest and began to walk around me squawking loudly as she let me know that I needed to move on. I took a brief video and then did just that.
I continued on to where the center channel forked off the the right and left and decided to head over the left where the channel that I normally take up to Mickers Road. As I was paddling that direction the water kept getting gradually shallower and shallower. I don't normally look at the water beneath my boat when I paddle in Guana since the clarity of the water is so low. For some reason, as I was gliding along, I looked down and saw the unmistakable pattern of a gator's back just a couple inches beneath the surface. I held my breath and my paddle which I was about to stick in the water and passed over the sleeping gator without incident. I continued over to the channel and quickly realized that it was too shallow to continue north so I headed south. That too proved to be futile as I was paddling in silt that got thicker and thicker as I made my way south. I turned around and made my way back to the place where I had entered the channel. I was hoping that the sleeping gator had moved and I tried to make a point to go a slightly different direction but within seconds I looked down and saw that I was passing over the same ominous looking pattern. Once again, I held my breath and for good measure I couldn't help but lift my feet up as I passed over the approximate location of the unseen head and, once again, somehow avoided waking the gator who I estimated to be at least seven feet long.
I made my way back south and I passed the same stuff more or less. At one point I spotted a female stilt sitting on her nest out in the open. When I stopped to shoot the male began doing an elaborate broken wing display while she walked out in the water and squatted down as if to let me know that she was defenseless and that I should concentrate one her and not her vacated nest. As I got closer to the turn toward the ramp I spotted a mass of pink on one of the outcroppings of dry land and I could tell that the dozen or so Spoonbill gathered there were mostly asleep in the afternoon sun. I paddled carefully so that the offshore wind would drift me in close to them. As I approached I could see that the group was mixed with several light pink, full head of hair youngsters and the rest were adults with the full breeding plumage I had seen when I had started this trip. When I got closer they all woke up and began walking around the outcropping. I could tell that they were about to flush but I think what sent them on their way was the arrival of a Stilt who evidently thought the pink guys were invading his turf. As I continued on I got one final "Guana experience" when a very large fish came flying toward me, bouncing off the left side of my boat and then flying past me before landing back in the water. Whew!! See the pictures from this trip
5/22/07
Not much of trip, really, just another "veg-out" paddle. I had thoughts about putting at Alimacani to check out the Red Knots at Hugenot Park but as I pulled in there I could see that the Hetchkas were about to take a group out so I turned around and headed toward the Ribault Club. That was really fine with me since we had plans for the evening and I didn't want to be out too long. I set out after checking the yacht basin and decided to go around the grassy island in a counterclockwise direction. As I cruised along the shoreline of Little Talbot I spotted a Great Blue Heron who was hiding in the shade of a fallen tree. He would occasionally peck at a root that was hanging down in front of his face just to make sure it wasn't a snake. I left him and made my way up to the hammock spot on the Talbot side of Simpsons. For the next couple of hours I ate, swam and read and then packed up to complete my circumnavigation of the island and headed for home. See the pictures from this trip
5/27/07
We are celebrating our 29th anniversary tonight so I didn't want to do too much today but since I was up at 5:30 I decided to head to Pumpkin Hill. I got there about 10 minutes after sunrise and was on my way on the outgoing tide with the water glassy. There was very little birdlife around due to the high water levels. I was about to get a shot of an Osprey and a Heron near the trails but the "Park Manager" came roaring down in his old pickup and flushed them away. I made to the point and was cruising under the trees when I suddenly heard what sounded like a growl. I looked up to see a couple of Rotty/Lab mixed dogs laying on the ledge overlooking the water. Apparently they belong to the manager and had gotten loose and were not too happy about my invading their backyard. I wasn't planning to get out at the point anyway and decided instead to head on into Edwards Creek and explore some of the many streams that cut into it in case any of them might get me close enough to the big pool that I have seen on the satellite photos. I spent the next couple of hours meandering around the flats. I never got close to the pool but I did see the first Yellow Crowned Night Heron that I have seen since the fall in one of the streams. I finally headed back against a stiff sea breeze that had kicked up and the trip back was slow but steady as I fought the wind and the tide. As I approached the put-in I spotted about four of the Whimbrels that I have been seeing a lot of this spring on the sandbar there. See the pictures from this trip
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