Kayak Virginia Beach

Lots Of Lotus - Ashville Bridge Creek - North Bay

Well I wasn't planning on a trip today, but the weather looked too nice this morning to not take advantage of it, so since it has been about a month since I visited Ashville Bridge Creek, I figured a quick kayak trip was in order. The creek level was at the low end of where I like it to be, but still completely doable, across the creek the was an Great Egret wading through the lotus looking for a meal. The Lotus are very impressive this year, I have been on this creek regularly for the past 3 years, and this years growth is very impressive, the 2 southerly patches are much larger, and have spanned the entire creek, making paddling through them a bit of a problem, but still navigable if you stay to the East side of the creek. The buds on the lotus are about ready to go into full bloom, probably in the next couple of weeks. The Egret was either young, bold or both, as it had no problem sharing the creek with me, usually they will take flight when you come within 20 yards, but this one had very little issues with me passing within 20 feet of it, it did keep a wary eye on me as I passed.

The rest of the creek appears to be in the transition mode, the Swamp Hibiscus have completed blooming for the season, as have all the other spring and summer bloomers, and the late summer and fall plants are just starting to come in, so I guess the only colors (except for the Lotus) on the creeks for a while is going to be various shades of green fading to brown. As far a animal life goes, there was the occasional turtle that dashed off at the first sight of my read kayak, I don't know, but I think the turtles have some kind of issue with the color red. In the blue or tan kayak, I/we can almost float right up to them or at least to within a few feet, but when the see the red kayak they are long gone at first glance. As far as the bird population goes, the Redwinged Blackbirds have disappeared, first trip in a long time where I didn't see any, but quite a few shorebirds, swallows, and a couple of Osprey were flying around, and I also saw my first Duck in about a month or so, a small female all alone.

I made it out onto North Bay, the wind wasn't that bad, and there was a slight chop on the water. Noticed few cars over at the Horn Point Launch, and saw a couple of people heading that way. That site is getting pretty popular, I guess thats a good thing, too bad it is only open during the summer.