Wednesday November 2, 2015 Jenner CA.
Cool wind blows
The wind was blowing down river when I got to Jenner this morning and it was cool. Usually the wind blows up river most days.
I put my boat in the water and headed across to Penny Island. I wasn’t sure which way to paddle today, up or down river, so I paddled into the little channel on the east end of Penny Island and sat here for a spell just taking it easy.
After a good while, I decided to paddle down the river taking the island back channel. There were a bunch of coots feeding which I paddled past. Mixed in with the coots were some Buffleheads and some golden eyed ducks.
Some of the buffle headed ducks that were mixed in with the coots.
Stopped in the slot
I paddled down along here and then pulled into a little slot just out of the picture to the left by the big redwood stumps you can see down there.
The slot was out of the wind, so I sat there for a good bit. That’s the town of Jenner there on the hillside, looking across Penny Island.
River’s mouth area
The wind seemed to be settling down some, so I headed on down to the river’s mouth area to see what was going on in that area. Here I’m jus coming up on the closed river’s mouth area.
I paddled over here and sat for awhile just checking things out.
Then I crossed over to the closed river’s mouth. There were some harbor seals resting there on the sand. When the mouth closes, most of the harbor seals move to the ocean and out of the river.
Mostly closed mouth
I pulled up into my spot here just in front of were the river’s mouth was. It’s low tide right now. I watched the waves breaking on the jetty rocks. High tides can still get over the sand you see there forming the dam that closes the mouth. Lots of seagulls were resting there.
C6 harbor seal is named Snowy
I didn’t see this C6 harbor seal today, but I wanted to report what Patti found out about the head tag.
Patti, a reader and a kayaker checked recently to find out what the tag was about and where this harbor seal came from.
She found out that this harbor seal was separated from it’s mother as a pup and the seal rescue people took care of it last summer.
Here’s what they had to say
We’ll check with our Stranding Department and see what we can find out for you.
As far as the hat tag, we use tags like that on our patients when they’re here at the Center so individual patients can get specialized treatment. The hat tags, (or “party hats” as our volunteers call them), make it easy to ID patients quickly while they’re in the water, or from a distance. And, as you can see from the pic, they enable us to ID our former patients for a time after we release them.
More from the rescue people
Hi Patty,
We got more information for you from the Stranding Department. The harbor seal in your pic was one of our patients from this past summer, named Snowy. Snowy was rescued for maternal separation and was released in June. We’re happy to see he’s doing well back in his ocean home!
Thanks Patti for finding this out for us. The seal will lose that hat tag soon and then it will no longer be Snowy, but just another harbor seal.
Red Sky
I was leaving the mouth area when I noticed the sky was a bit red down towards the south. Red sky in the morning, sailor take warning. And yes, there is a storm coming in tomorrow.
I decided to head back in for the day as I needed to go to Sebastopol to get a new hose for the dozer at the hydraulic shop and do a little shopping too.
As I was getting my car to load my boat, I noticed there was a bunch of these black birds in the garden right next to my car.
Gopher
As I was checking them out, I noticed this gopher just as it disappeared down it’s hole, so I waited to see if it would come back up. Shortly it did come back up but just for a few seconds. It looked at me for just a bit, then went back down it’s hole and proceeded to push dirt up blocking the entrance and I didn’t see it any more.
Going shopping
I put the boat on the car and headed on over to Sebastopol and went to Taylor’s coffee to pick up some of there organic coffee beans which I did.
Then it was up the road to the hydraulic hose place. They made up a new hose to match the old one.
From there I went to an Asian market to pick up a sack of pounded yam flour as I want to try cooking something with it. I’ve never tried it before, but it looked interesting, so I thought I’d see if I can make anything good with it or not. They have lots of interesting things in that market, some of them I have no idea what to use them for.
Fuel oil guy
I was almost home when I saw the fuel oil guy pulling into his house, so I stopped to see when he could make a delivery as I’m almost out of fuel oil, maybe tonight is my last night. I’d talked to him before about it, but we haven’t been able to meet up to get the job done. Tomorrow it’s supposed to rain, so it seemed like a good time to get it done, so we made arrangements to get some fuel in the afternoon which means I have to stay home tomorrow.
From there I went on home and that was my day.
Good Morning, Bob – My wife & I will be starting our mini-vacation today (12-16 thru 12/19) in Jenner, and would Love to meet you. Please email me at the address provided, so we can arrange a time to meet. It sure would be nice to put a “face” to your Amazing posts :) Cheers, Rick & Laura
That makes perfect sense, and I bet with the past four years of far less than normal rain fall, that that big dozer has been extra busy! Thanks for the name & address of the Asian Market, we’ll definitely go check it out, as Asian cuisine is our Favorite to cook & eat. It would be Great to meet you during our stay (12-16 through 12-19), We look forward to that :)
I like how iridescent their “coat” is. Is that what you call the birds’ feathers?
The expert didn’t say if the party hat eventually falls off. You might see him again.
Hi Bob ~ My wife & I will be coming back out to Jenner in mid December for another getaway to “Paradise,” and I’m curious if you think they’ll manually re-open the river mouth between now and then? Also, where is the Asian Market you mentioned? We’d love to go check it out while we’re there! Thanks – Rick
Hi Rick,
There’s a good chance they will have to open the mouth again. They have to keep opening the mouth until it rains enough to keep it open on it’s own.
The Asian Market is called Asia Mart and is at 2381 Guerneville Road in Santa Rosa.
It’s located by the Guerneville Road and Fulton Road, just east of the intersection. Lots of stuff in the store. Maybe I’ll see you guys in December?
Bob
When I got to Jenner visiting center yesterday the first thing I noticed was a new roof, nicely done. I saw your Subaru in the parking lot, and thought our paths might cross, but somehow they didn’t. It was kind of strange with the wind blowing down the river, but made an easy run to the closed mouth. Ended up traveling upriver on the south side of Penny Island. As we were entering the mouth of Willow Creek we saw a big wake in the water in front of us just before entering the creek. We thought it was a harbor seal or river otter, but never saw it surface. Then my imagination started kicking in, could it have been a river sturgeon feeding on the bottom in the shallows? Probably unlikely, but then again possible, but never have seen a sturgeon in the river. We headed up river after paddling Willow Creek, didn’t see the inland seals resting on the logs before finally reaching Markham hole. Another beautiful day on the river.
Hi Ken,
I was by the side of Penny Island just as you took off. I thought you’d see me, but you blew on by. :O) Haven’t seen you around lately and thought you might be off collecting some beaver for the river. :O)
Bob
Good Snowy’s name is out there for all to know him. The black bird is a cow bird. We had many in Eastern WA.
Interesting you should say that about the blackbirds as I’ve been seeing them feeding with the cows up the river this last couple of weeks. They seem to feed under and around the cows. I think they must be using the cows for protection as they feed even when the cow isn’t moving to stir up any feed for them.
I’m surprised the hat on Snowy is still on it as they are supposed to fall off during the molt which they do twice a year.
Bob