Kayaking in the Middle of the Winter?

We haven't had the kayak out for months. When we put it away last summer, we thought we probably wouldn't need it again until spring. But when we found out that motor-less boats are now allowed on the smaller lake within Choke Canyon State Park, we decided to go for a little boat ride. We seldom have a picture of the two of us kayaking, but we got a rare treat this day. A couple that was bird-watching from the shore took this picture of us across the lake. When we met Ken and Liz later, they offered to email the picture to us. Thanks !

Unlike the big lake in Choke Canyon State Park, this is the smaller "75-Acre Lake." It has the advantage of being more protected from the wind. We also don't have to worry about the large boat traffic that makes big waves on the big lake. So we had scoped out this lovely area yesterday, and now we're ready to see it from water level today.

In the winter, thousands of ducks call this little lake their home. From a distance, we could see flocks that included many different types of ducks enjoying the warm weather.

But as soon as we got close enough to try to take a good picture, they took to the air! It was amazing to see and hear hundreds of birds take off at once just over our heads!

We are used to being quite stealthy in our inflatable kayak, and being able to float very close to water birds. We used the same tactics that have worked in the past to creep through the grass and let our momentum carry us closer without the movement of rowing.

But then one bird would spot us and the whole flock would relocate to the other side of the lake! You can see the ducks flying away in the distance while the cormorant on the tree branch was less skittish.

So as bad as Denisa wanted to see the ducks up close, she only got the profile of the less jumpy cormorant.

We went all over the lake, even to the shallow end where we floated among the young trees. 75-Acre lake might be a few acres bigger this year, as these trees aren't always in the water.

That's where we could sneak up on this vermilion flycatcher sitting in a thorny bush in the water.

Those thorns are almost as big as this little bird!

We also found evidence that the park deer wade through this section of the lake. Our sea eagle can float in just a few inches of water, and this is very clear water so that we can see any snags below us. We weren't expecting to be snagged by a deer antler.

With no wind, and temperatures in the 60s, it was a great winter day to be on the water. We had a great time kayaking, even though the duck views were limited. We tried the tactic of hiding in the brush, hoping the ducks would swim our way. That didn't work either.

With thousands of ducks on this lake with us, the best picture we got with our little camera today were blurry from being so far away. 

We assume that all this skittish behavior has something to do with the fact that we are in the middle of duck hunting season. While the high-speed duck hunting boats are limited to the big lake, we're hoping that their guns must stay there as well. We feel a little vulnerable out here in an inflatable kayak among all these ducks during duck season.

It obviously isn't egret season, as this big bird was intent on hunting, rather than worried about being hunted.

These birds weren't worried about duck season either. We prefer to call them "birds-with-the-candy-corn-beaks" but we think their more official name is Common Moorhen or Common Gallinule. 

After a couple hours on the water today, we'll be packing up the kayak again. It might be months before we get to kayak again. But Denisa has a big smile on her face from this great day of getting to kayak in the middle of the winter!