Biologists at Work and More Brown Pelicans

Monday September 14, 2015 Jenner CA.

Drizzly day

There was a slight drizzle as I pulled into Jenner this morning. Just in case it might really rain, I put my rain pants on before getting into my boat. That should make sure it doesn’t rain while I’m out there.

Biologists working away

As I was paddling across the river some of the biologists came by in their boats. I knew they were headed over to the upper end of Penny Island to collect samples from the river so I paddled over to my spot in the little channel and watched what they were doing.

Here’s the biologists just as they passed me as I was crossing the river. It’s a bit on the foggy side today too, but the wind wasn’t bad.

I watched as the diver brought up a sample tube to the boat. They push these little pipes into the bottom of the river to collect a sample of what’s living in the stuff on the bottom of the river. These guys were getting samples out in the river while the other boat got them on and near the shore.

Here they are just pulling this drag net in which I think they call a sled. They drag it along the bottom of the river to collect what’s living in that area. The shore guys also pull smaller ones along the shoreline to collect specimens there.

I watched these guys until they finished this spot and took off up the river to their next sample spot, up by Willow Creek.

As I was paddling along, just about to leave Penny Island this small hawk of some kind glided in and landed close to me.

I paddled by some resting cormorants on a big redwood log as I headed on up the river.

I cut going up river short and stopped at Otter’s log for a bit. There was a bit of drizzle and it looked windier up river, so I decided to go back down the river to the mouth area to have a look at what was going on.

I was paddling along here on the north side of Penny Island as I continued on down the river. Most of the light drizzle had stopped by now. A bit overcast though.

I pulled into my spot in the closed river’s mouth and sat and watched the goings on.

Most of the harbor seals were gone from the shoreline. When the river’s mouth closes up, most of the seals move from the river to the ocean to do their daily resting on the shore.

Watching the pelicans

There were some brown pelicans across from me. They were preening and also doing some fishing when a school of fish would come by which seemed to be often today.

The pelicans on the left are putting their bills in the water to catch some fish.

The pelicans would jump up, fly a short distance and stick their bills in the water to try for some fish.

Whatever the fish were they were catching they weren’t very big as I didn’t see any. Pelicans tend to keep what they catch hidden a bit anyway, likely so nothing else tries to get what they caught.

Jetty

Since all the harbor seals were gone today, I could paddle over closer to the jetty to have a look at the sand that closes the river’s mouth. I sat in this spot for a bit watching.

I saw this one pelican doing something different. After watching it a bit, I think that thing in it’s bill is a rock, it was tossing it around, even dropping it in the water and getting it again. It might be a clam, but I think it was a rock it was playing with.

It’s holding the thing in it’s bill in this picture.

Lots of pelicans lately. Just about the time I get tired of watching something in the river, things will change and I’ll have something else to watch and I’m never know just what that might be.

After awhile I left that area going by here as I headed out of the closed mouth, headed back up the river.

I was slowly working my way back to the boat ramp, stopping here and there. This was my last stop before going in for the day, just down from the visitor center and the boat ramp.

I went on home for the day where I took it easy and didn’t do much, except a bit of puttering around in the yard and thinking about what I need to get together for my upcoming trip back to the desert.

That was pretty much my day.