Rock Springs Run

Kayked Rock Springs Run this morning. Sunday, October 31, 2010. Happy Halloween. I wanted to get deer pics and get home in time to see most of the Packer game.  Home early in the 2nd quarter, mission accomplished

Last night, I thought, I'd get some extra sleep and an early start with the time change. Good thing I checked the weather forecast and saw sunrise was still at 7:40. What? Standard time doesn't return until next Sunday

Launched from Wekiwa Springs State Park at 8:15, past a couple blue herons on the hydrilla containment boom and down a misty Wekiva River to Rock Springs Run.  Saw a otter in the Wekiva, unable to get a picture.    Ibis, limpkins, belted kingfishers, great blue herons. No publishable photos until I was up stream of the Indian Mound campsite.  Which was unoccupied, a solo camper was at Otter Camp.

Two does on the left side of the Run, one significantly larger than the other.

The above pic is where I turned back, just beyond the open area up Run of Big Buck campsite. Heard voices, the first downstream paddlers, I thought.  10:14 on the time stamp, 2 hours on the water.  I never saw the paddlers, and I went slowly down the Run, with a brief stop at Big Buck. Chances are the voices I heard were hikers, or backcamp campers, at Camp Cozy.

I have taken hundreds of ibis pictures, and this could be the first one with the beak wide open.

The two deer will still feeding.

Like Blackwater Creek and the lower part of the Wekiva yesterday, Rock Springs Run is flowing low and clear.

Into the second open area, or first, coming upstream, two more does.  On the other side of the Run.  Too deep in the brush for a photo, and they moved deeper into the thicket.   Four does, where were the bucks? November is mating season.  Ten minutes later, two bucks.

Eight points

Six points

I wonder if these are the two bucks I've been seeing since this summer.  My prediction that they would not be hanging out together in the fall, and mating season, is incorrect. So far.  I'm not sure if I've ever had two bucks in the same photo. Of course, I was hoping they would lock horns.

I saw more deer, six, than boats, five, on Rock Springs Run. About the same number of canoes and kayaks on the Wekiva River.  Saw an otter, again, but no photo.

I landed at 12:30.  Carted the yak up the hill to the car.  Three turkeys filed by as I tied it to the roof.

I had a nice snorkel in the almost empty, for a Sunday, Spring.

A fine kayaking weekend on what I think is the finest river system in Florida, the Wekiva and its tributaries, Blackwater Creek and Rock Springs Run. Saw otters, alligators, bucks and a manatee this weekend. Maybe a bear. And the kayak is still on the roof.  Scheduled myself off Monday afternoon.  For the Space Shuttle launch.  Which has been canceled.  Unsure of plan B. You'll find out tomorrow night.