Sunday November 8, 2015 Monte Rio, CA.
The plan today was to hook up the main water pipe at the creek crossing I’ve been working on,………….But.
It rained in the early morning and might rain again, so gluing pipes together and sliding in the mud was out.
Off to Monte Rio
The rain was pretty much stopped by the time I got it going, but it might shower. I decided to go down to the river and do some kayaking. What with the weather guys saying it was going to rain, there likely wouldn’t be many people on the river. People that listen too close to the weather reports stay close to the comforts of home. Of course with the river so close, if I call it wrong, it’s not far to a warm shower, so off I went to Monte Rio.
There wasn’t a sole around as I put my boat in the water at the ramp. Only the local ducks where there to greet me.
I headed on down the river at a rather slow pace, stopping here and there, checking things out.
The wind was down and the sun was mostly out as I paddled along, just below Monte Rio.
I could see the great egret up ahead preening. It took to the air as I approached and flew on back up the river over my head.
I paddled on, down the river headed to Villa Grande, just up ahead.
The river looks sleepy, not much going on. I spied these sleeping mallards on the shore and paddled over by them.
There was a seagull sitting in the water just in front of the ducks that I almost ran over. Wonder why it hadn’t moved off?
It was soon apparent why. It had a small crawdad it was working on that it picked up out of the water right in front of it. It worked on swallowing it as I watched.
Sheridan beach
I moved on down the river to the Villa Grande hole and sat for a good while and then started paddling on down to the Sheridan beach area, which is that beach off to the right, up, ahead.
The breeze was picking up a bit and I’d had it too good, mostly flat water, so I turned back up river at this spot, back to the Villa Grande Hole. There wasn’t much going on in that spot, so I didn’t stay too long.
Just above there, I saw a big ten foot board laying in the water by the shore, so I went over to check it out.
There were two crawdad claws laying on the board and the board was a bit wet. I think an otter was here not long ago and ate a crawdad. I’ve watched as the otters eat crawdads and crab. They usually discard the claws as they seem to be hard to deal with. I think it’s easier for them to go get another one, than to deal with the claws. Some birds also rip off the claws before swallowing them.
Just up the river from there, I could see three little pied bill grebe diving in the weeds.
Here’s one of the grebe.
I continued on and was coming up on Monte Rio here.
Birds
I went by this great blue heron. I wonder how many times I’ve photographed this bird?
And just past that, the great egret was fishing and doing pretty good too catching what looked like some small fish about two inches in length.
I was almost back to the boat ramp when some movement caught my eye over in the trees. I could see it was a green heron, so I moved a bit closer to check it out. Shortly it hopped up into the bushes and went out of sight.
I paddled just past the boat ramp. No one is around today, not even on the beach. Only mallard ducks sleeping there on the water, just below the Monte Rio bridge.
I went on home and took it easy for the rest of the day starting off with a nap on the couch after I got a fire going in the wood stove and that was my day.
