Seals and Buddy Birds, Kayaking Jenner

Monday September 9, 2013, Jenner, CA.

Seemed like the thing to do today was to go kayaking

I was at Jenner around ten thirty AM this morning and put my boat in the water. There was a light breeze, with just a little fog waffling in and out, mostly out.

I headed on up the river, I was thinking of going to the Willow Creek area. I stopped at the Otters log for awhile, just watching and then went on up to the Eagle’s landing area where I watched some more. What was I watching for?

Well, it’s like this, if you just keep paddling, things stop doing what ever it was they were doing until you pass them by. But if you stop and take it easy for awhile critters and things go back to whatever it was they were doing, which is most of the time getting something to eat. So, one actually sees a lot more action if one stops to smell the roses, or, a, fish, seals, birds, whatever? Once they start moving again, you might even see some critter you didn’t see while moving.

I take it easy and stop a lot and see more action this way.

From the Eagle’s landing area, I moved up the river about a quarter mile to this spot, where I backed in and watched some more.hangoutspot

 

This is the view I had from that spot looking toward the town of Jenner. Nice out now.hangoutview

 

I changed my mind and decided not to go up to the Willow creek area. It was too nice out and I felt too lazy, so I turned back down the river.

There’s almost always lots of birds out and some seals too. Maybe even some otters. I was paddling back to the Eagle’s landing area when I thought I saw a small seal in the water, but upon closer inspection it was an otter. It was gone in an instant and I didn’t see it again.

I obviously see a lot more then I take pictures of and lots of times when I get a good picture of something, I’m pretty lucky.

When I got back to Eagle’s landing I decided to go ashore for a bit and watch from there.

This is where I put ashore at Eagle’s landing for about a half hour or so.boatashore

 

When I left there, I went down the back channel of Penny Island to the slot on the west end and watched some from there. Here is the view from the slot, looking down toward the river’s mouth. A bit of waffling fog, but just a little. The sun mostly shined in Jenner today.slotview

 

I left the slot and went on by the west end of Penny Island where there were twenty or so harbor seals in the water doing whatever seals do?

Here are some of them, checking me out.seals

 

A few more harbor seals check me out as I sat in the middle of them.seals2

 

From there I went on down to the river’ mouth, which was wide open and it was hitting high tide time so lots of salt water was coning into the river from the ocean, that’s what brings the foam in.

Why do I like to sit in the foam at the river’s mouth?

I like to sit in the foam, because of the fact there is foam there means there isn’t a lot of current, so when I sit in it, I don’t tend to drift off as fast and it puts me in a good place to see things.

Here I am sitting in the foam at the Russian River’s mouth, which is wide open.foam

 

I think I sat down at the river’s mouth for an hour or so, then headed back to the boat launch area at a slow pace.

Just as I was almost to the boat ramp, I saw some of my little buddy birds on the shore line, so I went over to see them and take a few pictures.

They always seem fairly at ease when I’m around, so I can usually get some good pictures of them. Here’s some of them feeding on the shore line.buddybirds

 

This little guy came over near me feeding.buddybird4

 

When it got real close, it gave me this look.buddybird

 

After a bit of watching those buddy birds, I put ashore and tied my boat to the car and went on home for the day.

Something to eat, a nap and just puttering around in the yard for the rest of the day.

Nice day.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.