Watch for; fish underwater, turtles underwater and sitting on logs, water birds in the river and on limbs above your kayak. Be quiet so that you can see more animals. Anhingha likes to perch on limbs over the river. Hope that you don't scare anhingha enough to get a "gift" on your head. Just be quiet.
The female anhingha has the brown neck and the male is all black with white patterns on his wings. You will see many of them. They are aslo known as "snake birds" as they look like a snake when they are in the water. Most of their body is submerged, but the long neck and head is above water. Sometimes you can see it swallow a small fish and watch the fish go down the neck. When you can see the anhingha underwater you will see that it flies underwater.
Another bird you are likely to see is the cormorant. These are the birds that fishermen in South China use to catch fish for them by putting a band around their necks. They will let you get very close in the kayak if you are very quiet and unobtrusive. Their eyes are a beautiful aquatic blue.
When you pass the sign in the middle of the river, you are in the State Park. No swimming or fishing allowed. Just stay in the kayak and enjoy. Keep paddling straight ahead. There will be a little patch of river grass on both sides of the kayak, but there is a "road" open for you. Just past the clump of grass on the left, look-usually several turtles. Keep paddling and when the grass opens on the right, paddle in curving to the right near the bank of the river. There is a big hole in the bottom of the river-a big boil-a place where the underground aquifer opens up above ground. If it is a still day, you can see slight indication of the water pushing out on the surface of the water.
Leave the "big boil" and continue upriver. To the right is a turtle condo-you should be able to see quite a few turtles. There are springs that are now roped off. They are bird nesting areas. Gators also like them as they are free of human traffic. There are fines if you get caught going there. All good reasons to not go there.
The head of the springs is a big boil. Sometimes you can see the force of the water on the surface. If you would like to get out and walk around a bit there is a canoe and kayak parking. Entrance to the park is $1 per person.
On the way back downriver, stick to the right side. I once went into the little area just beyond the canoe rental. One day I saw the small green heron on the bank. The next day I flushed out a sunning gator. Bit dodgie for me!
Once Marcia and I had an encounter with a family of river otter along this stretch of river.
On the right, there is a little area off the main flow of the river. Just in front of this is the sunken boat. This is also the best place to see gar fish. Some are quite large and look like leopards in fish form. The river is dark here and the gar like to fish. Be still and patient and just look for motion underwater.
Take the right side of the river home. If you like, once you are outside the boundary of the State Park (past the sign in the middle of the river) you can slide out of the kayak and float along with it in the water. We put rope on our kayaks so that they are easy to attach to our wrists and we snorkel downriver with the current pushing us.
KG
