Tuesday March 11, 2014 Jenner CA.
It was a pleasure to be back kayaking the Russian River
I met Ray at Jenner around eleven in the morning. He was already on the water in his boat as I arrived.
It looked like it was going to be a nice day. The sun was out and the sky was clear with just a light breeze.
We paddled across the river to Penny Island and over to the south shore and on up the river taking our time as usual.
Here is what the river looked like as we made our way up the south side.
The Cormorants are still here
When we got up to Eagle’s landing, there were a lot of cormorants on the opposite shore by Paddy’s rock. Here are a few of them. Ray and I estimated there were at least 250 of them in this one spot. I know there are more of them up the river, likely over a thousand. I need to go up river soon and do a count, just to get an idea how many are in the estuary right now. Last year, I counted over a thousand around this time, which was really the first time I noticed just how many of them there were around here at this time of year. A lot.
Ray and I continued up the river almost to the highway one bridge.
As you can see it was a real nice day, looking back down river towards the town of Jenner.
Two Bald Headed Eagles came onto the scene
Eventually, we turned around and started back down the river and were sitting at Eagle’s Landing taking it easy when the birds across the river from us started a ruckus. Two Bald Eagles had just flown into the area and were flying right across from us.
Here’s one of the bald eagle’s, with some bovinosarous in the background grazing peacefully.
This pair of Merganser ducks were paying attention to where the eagles where, but didn’t seem to be bothered by them as a lot of other birds where. The geese made the most noise.
The two of them landed by the shore by Patty’s rock and were eating something they had carried in. Eventually, one of them took off, but the other one stayed for awhile.
One of the bald eagles.
Notice this guys claws. Yikes, they look dangerous.
Eventually the eagle flew off up the river and that was the last we saw of them for the day.
A lady bug caught my eye
As we were heading down the river this lady bug caught my eye, not as big as an eagle. My paddle was dripping water and my boat was trying to run over the piece of wood the lady bug was on as I tried to get focused on it with the camera. The water drops from the paddle made this a more interesting picture than it would have been.
It also gives the picture action and the kind of pictures I like to take best are what I call action stills.
We continued down river and when we got to the east end of Penny Island Ray decided it would be better to stay out here for a bit longer instead of going home for a nap, so we continued on down the back channel of the island to the west end.
Here we are just starting down the back channel of the island, looking across at the town of Jenner.
An Osprey was bathing in the water
On the west end of Penny island there was a big bird sitting in the water in the shallows taking a bath. Ray said, eagle and it did look like one and he was partly right. It was an osprey, which is also known as a fish eagle. Here it is just after it took flight. We saw several of them hunting in the area today.
The river’s mouth was open
We went on down and checked out the river’s mouth as I hadn’t seen it in quite awhile. While I was gone, it had moved further north from the end of the Jetty, which it does when lot of water comes down the river in the winter.
Here’s Ray in front of the rivers mouth looking out to the Pacific ocean. Harbor seals and seagulls are on the beach on the left.
We paddled on back to the boat launch ramp where Ray went in first and I stayed out by the island for a bit longer it was such a nice day, especially after just getting back from traveling all over.
Here is my kayak on the boat ramp as I pulled out for the day, looking west towards the ocean.
I came home to a nice spring day and decided I better get to work on a little device I needed to make to help load and unload my kayak from my car top so I don’t have to left all it’s weight up on the car at the same time saving my back.
I got it made once, but it wouldn’t slide in the metal without too much trouble, so had to make most of it again. I put a coat of paint on it and will need to mount it, then I will get some pictures of the device. I already have one on my van and it sure helps load it way up there.
Anyway, that was my day, a nice one indeed.