Paddling with the Fishing Birds and Seals and the C-6 Harbor Seal

Thursday November 12, 2015 Jenner CA.

Bad start on the day

The phone rang this morning before I got it going. I answered it, which I don’t normally do before I get booted up. It was my dentist. Unfortunately, she found that I needed to have some work done on one of my roots and was referring me to her husband which does that kind of work. Of course that translates to some big money. Not a good way to start  the day, but what has to be done, has to be done.

Off to the river

It looked like another nice day at Jenner this morning with the sun out and the wind down. I put my boat in the water and went over to check out these fishing cormorants that were diving right in front of the boat ramp.  There were a bunch of harbor seals and a few sea lions fishing with the cormorants making some big waves and some big splashes.cormorants

 

They all moved quickly up the river following the fish that were trying to escape them.

I turned around and looked back at the guys working on the new roof for the visitor center thinking it’s looking good.centerroof

 

Fishing pelicans

The brown pelicans were fishing right around me, flying overhead looking for fish to dive on. Trying to get diving pictures of them is a pain, so I passed on that.pels

 

I watched them for a bit, then crossed over to Penny Island  and up the side, headed down river going past these birds feeding along the shoreline. A great blue heron and some mallard ducks.heron

 

Paddled down to the mouth area

I sat at the lower end of Penny Island for awhile, then crossed over the open water headed to the river’s mouth area. I could see some big waves crashing over the jetty and a lot of foam in the water. It was high tide and some of the ocean water was coming into the river over the sandbar with the big waves making all the foam.foam

 

There were a dozen or so harbor seals right where the ocean water was coming over the sand bar, maybe looking to catch some fish. They had to be there for something as it wasn’t an easy place to stay with all the waves breaking over.seals

 

Here’s some of the harbor seals that looked like they were waiting there for something to eat.seals2

 

The C-6 seal

I paddled on down to the end of the river and was sitting there watching all the seals swimming around in the water, some coming quite close, when I noticed this one. Was that a camera I’m seeing mounted on it’s head or what?seal

 

I barely got the picture and it dove and I didn’t see it again.

I couldn’t tell what was on it’s head until I got home and blew the picture up. It looks like a number tag which reads C-6. I’ve never seen this on a seal in the estuary before. I’ve never seen any kind of marking tags on any of them.sealc6

 

Scared me

After awhile, I left the mouth area and was paddling along when this pelican dove in next to me, scaring me and making a big splash. I think it missed and was now just getting ready to take off into the air.takeoff

 

Muskrat area

I continued working  my way up the river, past Penny Island and on up to the muskrat area, just ahead.msukrat

 

I like to just sit in this area enjoying the warming sun and watching things and some times dozing a bit.

This least grebe swim by close. It was diving and looking for things to eat. I didn’t see it catch anything.grebe

 

I hang around that area for an hour or so, then paddled across the river to look for birds along the shoreline. Not too many birds there today.

Lots of cormorants on the estuary

However, there were about a hundred cormorants resting on the gravel by Paddy’s rock. Here’s just some of them.cors

 

I continued on back towards the boat ramp where I saw another bunch of cormorants diving and fishing away. Here’s just a few of the flock. Most of the other ones are under the water fishing.cormors

 

I’m not sure what kind of fish the pelicans and cormorants are eating, but there seems to a lot of them around right now whatever they are.

I took my boat out of the water and went on home. It was cool outside, so I didn’t feel like doing much and instead hit the couch for a nap.

I did call and make an appointment with the root dentist for Monday.That was quick, they must think the tooth is pretty bad. :O)

That was my day for another nice one.

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