Canoe, Canoe

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

We decided to avoid the mozzies today by going canoeing. We packed up water, snacks, cameras and my Tenkara rod and joined Harry and Sally in their Roadtrek to ride over to the marina to rent canoes. As we left the campground, the fog was so thick we could barely find the marina, so it on to plan B.

We drove up to West Lake to have another go at finding the cuckoo. We looked and looked and called and called, but no cuckoo was to be found. Sally mentioned that she hadn't seen the White-crowned Pigeons (another Everglades specialty), so we went on to Paurotis Pond, where Ellen and I had seen them in abundance.

They were there. In fact, they flew over as we arrived as if to greet us. The Wood Storks and other waders were also there, so a bit of tarrying was in order to fill out Ellen's and Sally's daily lists.

The fog had lifted by then so we drove back to the marina. We rented two canoes for four hours and I went online to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission site to get a 3-Day Saltwater Fishing License since Harry and I were bringing rods and I only had a freshwater license from Ocala. The idea was to paddle around the point to Snake Bight where there were large flocks of birds.

On a previous trip Sally and Harry had been able to paddle along the shore right into Snake Bight and close to the birds. That didn't happen this time. The tide had gone past high tide and it was already too shallow to get in where they had gone before. We tried to go around the outside but never got very close. We did see big flocks of Willets and Dowitchers fly by heading out into the bay.

By the time we got about halfway across the shallow outside of the bight, the wind had turned against us and we were concerned that we'd get stuck on the outgoing tide (we'd already touched the bottom several times). We turned around and quickly paddled back to the area of the visitor center and marina.

Once we got there, we spent some time getting close to the flats where there were flocks of shorebirds before heading back in and returning the canoes. My Tenkara rod never came out of its case. We paused at the picnic tables outside the marina store for well-deserved ice-cold beers (an ice cream bar for me) before heading back to camp and collapsing for the rest of the day in the screen house and vans to escape the mosquitoes.

Dinner was, once again, held in our screen house with blazing ThermaCells killing off any mozzies that made their way to the inside.

Photos