More Sea Lion Action and an Eagle Too.

Friday, Jan. 18, 2013, Jenner, CA.

The sea lions are are still at it.

I met Ray down at Jenner around eleven has he was just putting his boat in the water. I followed suit and just as we left the shore line, we could see a big commotion up river about a half mile. The sea lions where at it again, but too far away to check it out.

Turkey Vultures are eating a big fish.

We crossed over to Penny Island and started working our way up the river. I’d seen some Turkey Vultures working something over on the east end of Penny Island from my car as I pulled into Jenner today, which I wanted to check out and see what they were eating. Maybe the eagle would be there too?

Sure enough, as we approached the east end of the island there were a bunch of vultures eating something, alright, but no eagle in sight. A closer look determined that they were working on a big fish, or what was left of it. It looked like something the seals or sea lions had caught and ate part of and lost.

There seemed to be some sort of problem though, as they were having more of a picking order thing going on, more then eating the fish. One would get close enough to start eating the fish, then another one would approach and the first one would back off and they would do a sort of circle thing, establishing a picking order, more than eating the fish.

Below, you can see one of the vultures, defending the fish, which is just on the ground behind him.

vultures

 

We headed up to the Eagle’s landing.

We left there heading up stream some more toward Eagle’s landing, taking it easy along the way. The sea lions were around, but not real active. We continued on up river a little ways past Eagle’s landing. There was a slight breeze in the air that was a little on the crisp side, when we started out today, but now the breeze was turning warmer, which was welcome.

Not much action.

Not much action up here, we were getting spoiled, so we started heading down river toward the mouth area.. But first, I told Ray, let’s stop and go to shore where the last Indian village was, just above Penny Island on the south shore. There’s a fresh water march there and it’s a good place to do a little hike.

Ha, there’s that eagle.

But, as we approached that area, there was the eagle, sitting on the East end of Penny Island, with the fish the turkey vultures had earlier. He was eating away on it. I took a couple pictures before we went to shore for our hike.

The eagle eats fish, you bet.

The eagle is eating the fish in the picture below, which was on the east end of Penny Island.

eaglefish

 

One more a little closer, the eagle eats the fish in the pic below.

eaglefish1

 

A short hike was in order at the old Indian village.

We left the eagle there in peace to eat his fish and we went to shore right near there, but on the south side of the river.

Our Kayaks are in the picture below, where we put ashore for a little hike.

yakshore

 

Ray is ahead of me walking toward the fresh water area in the grass. I thought the whole place would be flooded and was surprised most of it wasn’t so we could walk back there a ways. When the water is gone in the summer, it’s a good place to hike, as long as poison oak doesn’t bother you too much. :O)

Below, you can see Ray walking in the grass where we went for a short hike.

hike

 

More pictures of the eagle are in order.

We were only there about a half hour and when we came back to the water, the eagle was still there, so I went back over and tried to get some better pictures of the eagle.

Some more vultures had come back by now too, but the eagle wasn’t about to share this fish.

Below, is a picture of the eagle and turkey vulture, patiently waiting for a share.

eagle4

 

The eagle eats fish on the east end of Penny Island.

eagle

 

One more of the eagle below and we are on our way down the back side of Penny Island toward the river’s mouth.

eagle1

 

Lots of ducks on the water too.

There are a lot of these types of ducks on the river at this time of year, not sure what they are, but we passed them on the way to the River’s mouth, as you can see below.

ducks

 

Nice at the Russian River’s mouth.

The river’s mouth was wide open, it was just coming off low tide. Lots of birds and seals down there, with some sea lions swimming around too. While bobbing around down there in our boats, you just never know when one might pop up right beside you and give you a bit of a scare.

The Russian River’s mouth is in the picture below, looking out into the Pacific ocean.

rivermouth

 

We stayed there for about a half hour or so and headed back toward the west end of Penny Island where there were a lot of seagulls hanging out on the shore.

Sea Lion’s make another big commotion.

As we worked our way up the river toward the visitor center take out, a big commotion developed right in front of us. The sea lions were at it again, really romping around. They hunted vigorously right in front of us for about a half hour.

Once I heard a big splash right near Ray and knew he had gotten a good view of a sea lion, likely closer then he wanted. Although there was a lot of action around us, I wasn’t able to get any good pics from this encounter.

You can see the sea lions circling and causing a commotion in the picture below.

sealions

 

We were off the water by three pm.

After watching them for awhile, we headed in and were off the water near three pm, I believe.

I took one last photo of the sun and sky from the visitor’s center, just before taking the boat out of the water,, as you can see below.

sun

 

The day started out a bit on the breezy crispy side, but warmed up to a breezy warm day for the winter day that it was.

I went home and worked on my van propane main line a bit and that was it for the day.

Had a great day.

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