Our final day in the Everglades was spent with a morning kayaking on Florida Bay. We chose the bay because we were told of the hundreds of shore birds we could observe. Also, the other option was to go up the canal which is home to a few crocodiles of impressive length. But I could just picture us trying to paddle furiously away from a fourteen footer and ending up all entangled in one of those killer flesh-eating trees and having to write this post while recovering from skin-graft surgery. The only danger in the bay is sharks.
Anyhoo, we split up into three kayaks and headed out onto the open water. It is pretty shallow out there in the channel so we glimpsed stingrays and jellyfish. Right away we rowed up on a flock of pelicans feeding. On the sand bars were huge groups of white ibis and plenty of herons and egrets. In the mangroves we saw night herons and Tricolor Herons and even Roseate Spoonbills sifting the mud for crustaceans. The herons were skittish but the spoonbills were so preoccupied with breakfast they let us get quite close.
We paddled all the way to Snake Bight. Really, that is its name (bight is a geographical term for a shallow-shaped bay). Unfortunately, the wind there was very strong and we found maneuvering difficult so we headed back. We never did see those sharks which are supposed to be easy to find, but it was a pretty nice morning.
Anyhoo, we split up into three kayaks and headed out onto the open water. It is pretty shallow out there in the channel so we glimpsed stingrays and jellyfish. Right away we rowed up on a flock of pelicans feeding. On the sand bars were huge groups of white ibis and plenty of herons and egrets. In the mangroves we saw night herons and Tricolor Herons and even Roseate Spoonbills sifting the mud for crustaceans. The herons were skittish but the spoonbills were so preoccupied with breakfast they let us get quite close.
We paddled all the way to Snake Bight. Really, that is its name (bight is a geographical term for a shallow-shaped bay). Unfortunately, the wind there was very strong and we found maneuvering difficult so we headed back. We never did see those sharks which are supposed to be easy to find, but it was a pretty nice morning.