Tuesday August 26, 2014 Jenner CA.
Biologists taking critter samples
When I arrived at Jenner today, I could see the biologists in their boats in the water taking samples.
I put my boat in the water and went over to talk with them a bit. These three guys were collecting samples of critters on the bottom of the river, both in the bed and they use the net you see in the photo to drag the bottom for critters that live there. They are sampling for the critters the fish are eating in the estuary.
They have a diver that gets samples about four inches into the river bottom and then they pull the net you see along the bottom to get the critters that live at the bottom of the river.
I left them to it and headed on up the river. I passed these ladies getting samples of the critters along the shoreline on Penny Island. They look good in their outfits. :O)
I continued on up the river to eagle’s landing and on past to this spot were I sat for a bit.
Eventually, I made it up to musk rat and spent some time there.
They call the little shrimp like critters, Bay Shrimp
While I was sitting there, I noticed a lot of bug type critters swimming around in the swallow water, so I tried to get some pictures, but they are very small. The red arrows show two little tiny shrimp like critters, maybe a quarter inch long.
These little shrimp like critters are what the biologists are finding in abundance in the water that the fish are eating. I asked the guys what they call the little shrimp like critters, while I was talking to them in the boat. One of them said, that’s what we call them, little shrimp like critters. He told me the scientific name. It started with my…. something, I can’t remember. He also said they call them bay shrimp. There are lots of them in the estuary right now.
All this time I was playing with the new camera and figuring out how it works. I think I have some of it figured out now.
After a good rest, I started back down the river and this was my view looking down to the town of Jenner. Note the thing on the right of the pictures is a paint program I used for the arrows in the above pic and somehow it got in the rest of the pictures.
River Otters
I was sitting by otter’s log, when I heard a commotion and looked up to see the otters on the log. They only stayed for a minute then were back in the water and disappeared.
River’s mouth area
I worked my way on down the island back channel to the river’s mouth area. The sun was out and it was a very nice day as I sat in the river’s mouth looking out to the Pacific ocean. There were harbor seals on the sand on the right side of the river’s mouth.
Some of the harbor seals on the sand.
There were birds on the left side of the mouth. Cormorants, seagulls and terns.
Seagulls eating crab
I hung around the mouth area for about a half hour and then worked my way over to the north side of Penny Island where I could see some seagulls bobbing in the water fishing for something.
One of them took off with a small fish that looked like either a small steelhead of salmon, but can’t be sure.
The seagulls were mostly catching these small Dungeness crabs and eating them.
I was headed to the boat ramp, when the biologists came back with their boats. They have motors so they beat me to the boat ramp, so I waited on the water for them to get their boats out of the water, which they do fairly fast and don’t plug up the ramp.
Worked on the van
I went on home and did some puttering around. I found out why some of my dash lights don’t work on my van. Broken wires and a burned out bulb.
Extended oil filler tube
I then worked on extending my engine oil filler spout on the van engine as it’s so low, I spill oil all over the engine when I try to add oil to the engine. I have it partly made and will finish it soon.
I was prompted to fix the oil filler tube as last time I added oil, I spilled some on the engine. I set the gallon jug of oil aside and started to wipe up the oil, when I knocked the gallon of oil to the drivers floor. What a mess. That’s why I’m fixing this thing.
I also noticed my heater hoses from the engine are getting old and need to be replaced before my next trip. I need to take some measurements and get new ones and install them.
That about wraps up another day.