Saturday July 26, 2014 Jenner CA.
A good day to stay home,……….But
Being Saturday and a triathlon going on in our area, I knew there’d be people everywhere.
So, I did something a little stupid, I went to get the pipe for the great ditch project. That wasn’t’ too bad, but coming home I ran into closed roads everywhere for the triathlon. After much back tracking, I made it home and unloaded my pipes and stuff.
Evening paddle at Jenner
A little nap and something to eat and I was off to Jenner for an evening paddle, where it was hoped, most of the people had already left the water and that was mostly so.
I put my boat in the water and headed on up the river towards eagle’s landing and on up to rat nest beach. The sun was out and the wind was down, perfect.
Lots of splashes down river
While I was sitting around there, I noticed a lot of splashes back down the river about a half mile by Paddy’s rock. Lots of splashing. Darn, it’s way down there. If I start that way, the splashing will likely stop before I get there? I went down anyway and the splashes keep happening. Was there some birds fishing or what? Splashing usually means fish are being caught and eaten, but not today.
Bath time
It turned out a large flock of cormorants had landed just after I passed the area and they seemed to be taking a fresh water bath, getting ready for beddy-bye, as it was just before dark.
The splashing birds I saw from a long ways away, as I got closer, right by Paddy’s rock.
Just behind Paddy’s rock, most of the cormorants came out of the water and were drying their wings, settling in for the night. There were some merganser ducks sitting there also.
I paddled on down by the cormorants and continued on the north side of the river looking for shorebirds.
This curlew caught my eye and I stopped to take some pictures of it. After a bit, it ignored me and started doing it’s feeding thing as I watched.
Sunset wasn’t looking too good
I was headed down to the river’s mouth area to see the sunset, but I wasn’t in any hurry as it still had an hour and a half before it was to happen and there were no clouds in the sky, so it wasn’t likely to be a real good sunset.
I crossed over to the north side of Penny Island and spotted these birds feeding on the shoreline.
And just past them was this egret fishing along the shoreline. This is the first year I’ve seen so many egrets in the estuary at this time of the year. They usually come in the fall. That means fishing must be good here, or not good somewhere else, where ever they usually spend their time.
And as I paddled past the egret, I could see another bird hunkered down and wasn’t sure what it was until I got closer. A great blue heron.
Birds resting on the end of Penny Island
As I rounded the end of Penny Island I could see a lot of birds resting on the gravel. Brown and white pelicans, seagulls, terns and some other birds too.
A pelican stretching it’s bill.
And lots of harbor seals in the water too
I sat with the harbor seals in front of the island for a bit watching and they watched back. Lot’s of seals in the water today, even down at the mouth area. They didn’t appear to be fishing, but I don’t really have any idea what the seals do under the water?
An improving sunset
Some clouds have moved in, so the sunset should improve, as clouds give a sunset it’s character and beauty.
My view as I started down towards the river’s mouth area, just before sundown.
Waiting for the sunset
I sat around in front of the open river’s mouth for about an hour waiting for the sun to go down. The wind was down and the tide was starting to come in.
I watched the sun go down and the sky turn red. This is just after sundown, looking down towards the river’s mouth area as I started back in for the day.
As I was paddling in, I stopped and turned around every so often and this was my best sunset shot for color anyway.
I headed on in after that photo and was off the water about nine PM and headed on home.
Nice day with a spectacular sunset to boot.
