Here is the link for the University of North Florida.
Hey! Dot and I have been 'off' for the past couple weekends with the holidays and family issues. So we were both looking forward to getting out this past weekend. As always the weather is a 'BIG' if. This past weekend was pretty dreary as I'm sure most of you have noticed. On Saturday the weather forecast was for highs in the low 70's with light winds out of the north and mostly cloudy. It wasn't just 'mostly' cloudy, it was 100% cloudy. We never saw the sun, although on the way down to the Oklawaha it did brighten up a bit. Then as we got down to the river, it got foggy. Well, after driving all that way we just decided to take an umbrella with us 'just in case'. As long as it isn't TOO windy, we WILL make the attempt.
As you can see from the first couple photos, it was indeed a dreary day. And since most of the leaves are off the trees the woods have a pretty stark look to them. But even stark can have its hidden beauty. Looking at still photographs, you can't hear the birdsongs we heard. The woods were alive with birds. Migration time. We have never heard the woods on this river so noisy with birds.
'They' have raised the water level of the river. 'They' being the Rodman dam overseers, rangers. Our put-in at the dam boat ramp was mostly underwater. But the water was still crystal clear as you will see.
As Dot noted, we have never seen as many blue herons on the river as we saw this day. This guy was pretty wet, so he must have been fishing.
Because the skies were so heavy with overcast, it was nearly impossible to see into the clear water because of the reflection off the clouds. At some point I noticed that if we put our paddles over the water, we could look 'under' the paddle blade into the water. Pretty neat, huh?
Because of the raised water level there was a pretty good current as you can see in the picture.
There was 'some' color, but not much.
You can see how reflective the surface of the water was from the reflections of the trees lining the banks.
This is a kingfisher. These birds are nearly impossible to get a decent picture of. In this picture he was easily 50 yards away. And this is as about as close as we can get to them before they fly off. Talk about camera shy !
The great blue herons are not a problem. As long as we don't 'spook' them with the paddles, we can get as close as 15 feet to them.
On my very first trip on this river with the Jacksonville Canoe and Kayak Club we saw this American Bald Eagle. I am pretty sure this is the same one we saw that time. On the 3 or 4 trips Dot and I have made on this river, she has been hoping to see a bald eagle.
We are all different. My biggest thrill is seeing an otter. Dot's biggest thrill is seeing an eagle. As we rounded a bend on the river, I saw this eagle in the same tree we saw it in with the club. I gave my camera with the telephoto lens to Dot. Looking through the telephoto is like looking through a telescope. Dot said she could easily the see the eagle's eyes as he looked at us. I know that feeling . . . and it does get to you. So all of the eagle pictures here are ones that Dot took. And I think she did a pretty good job of that.
I know Dot will be happy to see these photos. She wasn't sure at all if she had caught him in mid-flight. She did indeed. And what great shots they are !!
Pretty good, eh? So Dot had her thrill for the day.
This is where we always have our lunch, at the Indian burial mound.
And here is the otter we saw the last time we were out here. This was MY thrill. We have figured out this is 'his' territory. One just has to have patience and stay here for a while to see him. We are pretty sure he 'patrols' a good sized area of the river. Even then seeing him is pretty much hit and miss. He spends a very large amount of time underwater . . and out of sight.
These were different. We saw a large area of these aquatic plants intermingled with water lily's. We thought they were lily's.
At least until Dot pulled one out of the water. They do not have roots that are anchored to the bottom of the river. These are floaters, with their roots going just a short distance down into the water. But it has got be a great breeding place for small fish.
As you can see the surrounding area, these plants pretty much cover the entire surface of the water. It seemed to us that these would be very nice plants to have on some of the ponds on campus. They would be easily manageable since if they got 'too dense' on a pond, it would be a simple matter of taking out a boat and scooping them out for disposal. Like I said, good places for little fish to breed. Big fish eat little fish . . and bigger fish eat big fish . . and people eat bigger fish. Speaking of fish, we saw an angler landing a black bass from his boat. It was a nice size fish and like he said, good eating.
OK. I had some input from one of my photo fans, Cheryl Vonn, and this is what she has passed along to me.
That plant you saw so much of is waterlettuce and according to the plant
assessment list that the University of Florida maintains - its definitely a
"bad for Florida plant " - its a category E plant (meaning
details below)- its a great list to check out -
Here is what Category E means:
Prohibited from use in Florida according to the Federal Noxious Weed List, the
Noxious Weed List of the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer
Services, or the Prohibited Aquatic and Wetland Plants List of the Florida
Department of Environmental Protection
Here is the website of the U.F. plant list
http://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/assessment/pdfs/concl_common.pdf
Well, so much for bringing these on campus eh?
We only saw one gator on this outing which was no big surprise considering the weather. Neither of us got a picture of him though. Drats!
Dot is getting to be a pretty good videographer with the new Canon Powershot A540 I got. It takes videos with sound, and it will take up to 16 and a half minutes of video with a 2GB memory card. I wish I had the space on my website here to display some of them, but they are really BIG . . Megabyte-wise ! If I could display them here, they could only stay up for a week or so probably because of the bandwidth problem. People with high-speed access or campus access could see them without much problem. Dial-up . . forget it. No way.
So ends another day on the Oklawaha River. Dreary day and all, it was a good day. We put in a total of 9 miles and saw some sights only a chosen few are privileged to see. We are still hoping to catch a glimpse of a bear one day. One day soon we are going to go down and explore Juniper Springs. It's another 20 miles or so past the take-out for the Oklawaha. So until then . . .
Enjoy !!!
P.S.
If you want me to ADD your name/email address to my emaillist when I add new photos to this website, email me at the address below and I will gladly add your name and address. If your name is already on the list, no problem.
Email to Jack Woodward mailto: jackwoodward66@hotmail.com
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