"Tangle of Gnarly Knees”
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Our Participants
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We started our informal "Out and Back" (no close-proximity shuttles) at the Champion Lake parking lot/boat ramp at 10:00 AM. It was overcast. We checked the water level and then paddled toward the dam.
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| Alice |
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Pier Gage |
We saw snowy egret, a juvenile little blue heron, great egret, cormorants, a double crested cormorant and a kingfisher.
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| Juvenile Snowy Egret |
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Two Types of
Cormorants |
We were surprised to see a notice on a chain hanging across the channel that said what it says in the picture below. So that’s as far East as we paddled today. Evidently the powers that be are doing some work on the dam and they don’t want us around it.
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| Notice |
We went back to the boat launch and then continued west, following the shore of the lake. We saw lots of anhinga, cranes, an eastern phoebe, turkey vultures, black vultures, an osprey, more egrets and a great blue heron. Then we started slogging through duckweed. John and Cindy spotted a flight of 7 wood storks. A fishing spider made a brief appearance and then spiraled up the tree out of sight.
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| Black Vulture |
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Alice in Duckweed |
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Fran in Duckweed |
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Fran, Cindy and John
in Duckweed |
We had a nice lunch break at the northwestern corner of our route.
After lunch, we did some zig-zagging in the margins of the little hills in the middle of the lake and saw Marker 19, more anhinga and egrets, a cardinal and a medium-sized alligator. The gator was cruising through the duckweed and suddenly made a pretty dramatic and noisy flip and dive.
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| Fall Color |
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Alice paddling under
Bonsai Cypress |
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Fran digging in |
John and Cindy heard a red-breasted woodpecker, a titmouse, and a Sandhill crane. We all identified the pileated woodpeckers. Other wildlife not seen were sensed in the form of loud splashes, many of them against our boats, that we suspect were gar or carp.
It was a very nice day on the water.
Here’s where we went:
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| GPS Stats |
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Our Route - more
spread out |
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Scavenger Hunt
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Photo album link: Scavenger Hunt