A Morning on the River

We have entered the "Dog Days" of summer here, and for us that means that any significant outdoor activity needs to be started and finished before noon to beat the heat. One activity that seems to fit perfectly into these days is kayaking. 

The Guadalupe River runs through nearby Kerrville, Texas, and has small dams in several places forming lakes. For our first trips in our new kayaks we put into the lower lake, but this week we decided to try the middle section. You can click on the picture below (or any picture!) for a bigger, clearer version. 

We launched from a put-in spot in Louise Hays Park, right in the middle of Kerrville, and headed up-river from there. There is an island called Tranquility Island within the park, and it has some towering cypress trees that are used for nesting by a group of Yellow-crowned Night-Herons. 

The herons have been using this site for decades, and it turns out that the best way to see their nests is from the river! The youngsters were almost as large as the adults, and the nests were starting to look crowded. It won't be long before these youngsters leave the nest and strike out on their own. 

An adult bird arrived at this nest and the four youngsters immediately started to gobble up whatever delicacy had been delivered. We did learn not to get directly under the nests as we saw a couple of "poops" get shot down into the water. No thank you!!

While the first part of our paddle was definitely in town, with plenty of buildings and traffic noise, we soon got into a quieter and more remote section of the river. 

As we continued the river got narrower, and in some places pretty shallow. We finally reached a spot where the river became too shallow to continue, so we turned around and headed back with Teri leading the way. 

As we approached the park, a young Red-shouldered hawk decided to perch on a dead tree branch and inspect our kayaks.

We passed back under the night-heron's nesting trees, and found this group of attractive youngsters waiting for more food no doubt. 

Kayaking seems like a perfect summertime activity for us, and we plan to check out other sections of the river in the coming weeks.