Wednesday August 6, 2014 Jenner CA.
And my new computer comes a day early
I was up to an overcast day as I got it going this morning. As I arrived at Jenner fog was waffling around with a breeze and the tide was out.
I headed on across the river to Penny Island and headed on up the river. Fog was coming and going, but not too thick as I paddled along.
Penny Island to my right as I paddle along, heading up the river.
As usual, I paddled along at a leisurely pace stopping along the way to watch for stuff.
I paddled along here passing Eagle’s Landing.
I made it up to Dead Deer Gulch, which is under the tree in this picture, where I pulled in and sat in my boat, looking out to the river.
This was my view looking up the river towards the highway one bridge, as the fog waffled in and out.
And from that same spot, looking down the river towards the town of Jenner.
I sat there for an hour or so taking a little nap. My naps are with my eyes closed, but my ears wide open, to alert me to any critters that may come by, as in that position, I’m fairly motionless so don’t tend to scare much off.
Musk Rat digs clams
That’s what it looks like. As I approached the spot with the musk rat nest, I noticed these shells in the shallow water. There were several of them. Notice the hole, where I think the musk rat dug up the clam and then cracked the shell to eat it.
A little closer look at the hole and the clam shells.
It’s interesting that I didn’t know these clams were even in the estuary, but the rat musk rat did. Lots can be learned by watching what other critters eat and do.
Moving on down the river
I continued on down the river and an osprey jumped out of the trees as I went by, but then landed a short distance ahead of me, back in the trees at one of it’s frequented perches. I think this is the osprey that has been hanging around for a week or so, and doesn’t seem to be too bothered by my presence.
The fog was starting to left, but it was still overcast as I continued on down the river, this view is down below otter’s log, just above Penny Island and looking down to the town of Jenner.
Some little pipers were feeding on the shoreline as I went by the swamp rock trail area.
Kenny’s dead owl
I forgot to tell you that Kenny and Smith came by in their electric motor canoe. Kenny said he found a dead barn owl when he got out on the end of Penny Island on his way up.
He sorta described where it was, but not too good, but he did say he put a stick by it, if the wind didn’t already knock it down.
So, I was headed to the east end of Penny Island for a little walk and to see if I could find the dead owl.
Clams die in the estuary
I landed in the gravel on the east end of Penny Island and decided to take some pictures of these dead clams, as I’ve been seeing them all around the waters of Penny Island for the last few weeks or so. There is a big clam die off this year.
Here’s some of the shells from the dead clams I’ve been seeing in the shallows around Penny Island. They are little guys, maybe about an inch or so.
I think these are fresh water clams that have been had by all the salt water that’s been in the estuary this year.
For the last two years before this one, the mouth was closed a lot and the river’s mouth was also open, shallow, a lot, which means there was a lot more fresh water in the estuary on and off through those years. Those conditions promote layering of the salt and fresh waters, so the clams likely could survive, as they could feed when the water was fresh enough.
But this year, the mouth hadn’t been closed much, nor has the mouth been open shallow, only open deep, so the tides come and go, at will, creating a saltier estuary, with very little non salty fresh river water.
It seems these fresh water clams can handle a certain amount of salt water, but need fresh water to sustain their lives. In other words, just salty water all the time without any fresh kills them. That’s the way I see it anyway. :O)
I pulled my boat ashore on the east end of Penny Island and went for a little walk around the old milking barn, looking for that dead owl.
I didn’t find it, but just as I was leaving, I realized he saw it on the extreme east end of Penny island, so I headed over there.
Tar weed
I spied this tar week along the way. It has a nice pungent smell, so I picked some and put it in my shirt pocket. The smell permeated the air every once in awhile throughout the rest of the day.
I think one of the names of this plant is Tar weed. Nice little flowers too. Too bad you can’t smell it. I still have some in my pocket. 
This was my view of the town of Jenner from this extreme end of Penny Island, as I’m looking for the dead owl.
There’s the stick and the dead owl
There’s the stick Kenny said he put in the ground to mark the spot and there is the little dead owl on the ground. Dead alright. No idea what killed it. There was evidence on the ground nearby of things little owls eat, like birds and rodents.
Down the back channel
After finding the owl, I got back in my boat and headed down the back channel of the island. I was thinking of going down to the river’s mouth, but as I rounded the west end of the island, I felt real tired, so I just took a picture down that way and headed on in for the day.
My new computer is here early
When I arrived home, I found a big box just behind my gate. My new computer had arrived, one day early.
I bought a gamer type computer so it would be fast enough to do video editing. It has a bunch of fancy lights on the front of it, as gamers seem to like flashing lights. I think I could do without them though.
The computer is a CybertronPC Hellion GM1213B Desktop with win8 on it.
I’m going to put the new and the old computer into, Easy Transfer Files, over a network, a little later tonight, to let it import all my stuff from the old computer. We’ll see if that works or I have to do things the old way, the hard way.
That’s it for another day passed on earth.