St. John's River Paddle Friday 2-28-2020

We snake around and thru the southern tip of lake Winder’s maze of islands of Maiden Cane,
Bullrush, Switch Grass and floating Spatter-dock. There we see flocks of Greater Yellow Legs,
along with the usual.. Great Egrets, Little Blues and Tri- Colored Herons, Snowy and Cattle Egrets, and our first Snail Kite. From there we paddle to the southern tip of Winder where it takes in the river and within a few hundred feet run into our first congregation of gators. They are all up in their crawls sunning themselves. There’s a dozen or so in this first group, from 7′ to 10′. We steady our kayaks as we ready for the bow wave as they all scramble and crash into the river for safety, one clipping the bottom of my boat in the melee. In the next few minutes there are five
more groups from a few individuals to 10 or more. There are a couple of specimen bulls maybe 12 feet. The adrenaline rush in our kayaks at water level is riveting. The mouth of a river is where you can always be assured to find a congregation of gators. Soon we turn into a smaller tributary and look back to see about 60 sets of eyes and noses watching.
It is good seeing this many large gators for I have noticed a sharp decline in the bigger specimen due to the needless annual gator “trophy” hunt. I have long proposed a slot limit of 4 to 9 feet to protect and insure we don’t deplete these quintessential iconic beasts. Killing only the biggest adults is not sustainable as the average size of the hunt is smaller every year. Sadly these breathtaking specimens are not as common.
Once in the tributary we see dozens of Turkey and Black Vultures roosting in the Cypress trees. There are Killdear and Limpkins foraging on the sand bars. We startle two Black-Crowned Night-Herons as they hurriedly fly by, flocks of White and Glossy Ibis, Great and Common Egrets, Great Herons and Little Blue Herons, Even an elusive Green Heron puts on a show.
We are now heading back North into Lake Winder, this time on the West side as we chase a flock of Curlew’s out ahead. In a few miles I’m standing in the trickle of what’s left of Cox Creek. As I thought, after almost a hundred years there are no remains left of the old wooden structure of the Shriver House. Even where it once stood is not certain. Although with all my research I know I’m close and can feel the breath from a long distant past on the wind. We head back across Lake Winder as the shadows grow long, even the lake is calmer now. There are two adult Bald Eagles and two Snail Kites soaring overhead leading the way… Remarkable… With Ernie Green.