A Breezy Day at Monte Rio

Thursday, May 23, 2013, Monte Rio, CA.

Too Windy at Jenner Today for kayaking

When I checked the weather report for Jenner today, it said it was going to be windy. But I drove down there anyway and sure enough, the weatherman was right for a change. The wind was blowing a Gail, whatever that is? :O) It was blowing hard enough, that it looked like it would be hard to paddle anywhere, so I headed back to Monte Rio. It was breezy there too, but not windy like Jenner can get being next to the ocean and all.

The plan was to head down stream taking it easy, just poking along. So, I headed down river in a stiff breeze. When I got to the Villa Grande hole I stopped for awhile to see if I could get any good osprey shots at the nest there.

They didn’t cooperate with anything exciting. The best I could do is below. Two ospreys in the nest. The young one on the right is getting quite large.

I wasn’t there too long when a bunch of guys came down the river in boats making a lot of noise, so I pushed off and kept ahead of them clear down to Ryan’s beach. I wasn’t sure if they could handle the breezy conditions, but they did alright. At Ryan’s beach hole I let them go by me and had some peace and quiet after that.

Below, you can see these guys bearing down on me just below Sheridan beach.

Quite a few ducks have their little duckies now. I went past this little group of mallards getting some sun on a log.

Ryan’s beach area was as far as I went down the river today. Below is a picture of Ryan’s beach looking down the river.

There were some big green ferns up on the bank that I took a picture of below. Nice green color.

I stayed in the Ryan’s beach area for about an hour then headed back up the river. The breeze seemed to be dying as I went.

I’ve been seeing a lot of green herons on the river lately. As I was sitting under some trees this one flew in near me.

Here’s another picture of this green heron.

I sat in this patch of green weeds for awhile and got some sun. The picture is looking up toward Monte Rio.

As I paddled up the river past the little island just below Monte Rio, there were some turkey vultures getting some sun on the beach. This one had it’s feathers out while getting some sun.