Friday December 13, 2013 Monte Rio CA.
Can you spot the fox?
It was still at 32 degrees F. this morning when I got up. I was thinking it would be a good day to kayak at Monte Rio as it is so scenic right now.
I arrived down there around 11:30AM and put my boat in the water and headed down stream. The sun was out nice and and the water was mostly flat today. I could see by the water level at the launch ramp that the river’s mouth was still open as it backs it up past Monte Rio when it is closed.
Down stream it was
I could of going up stream, but the choice was down stream today. Just below Monte Rio, there were some guys making a lot of noise taking some big trees down, so I hurried on down the river out of ear shot to the Villa Grande Hole where I sat for a bit. It was so calm today, I didn’t need to find any places to sit along the river, I just stayed in the middle and mostly drifted down the river in the current paddling just a bit.
I hadn’t intended to go down the river very far today, but it was so calm, I just kept going.
Just below Monte Rio, I ran into this pair of Merganser ducks. Most of the year the males stay away from the females, but they come back from somewhere and join the females this time of year, just about up to hatching time and then the males disappear to somewhere?
A pair of merganser ducks, male on the left and female on the right. She’s telling him to get moving, there’s a guy in a kayak going to run over us.
Scenic River
Like I said the water was real flat today and the sun was out.
This is my view going down stream, just below Villa Grande.
Night herons
The river was real scenic all the way down. I passed by Rein’s beach and went into the little channel by the island there and about six black crested night herons flew out of the trees and landed a short distance further down the river where I caught up with them.
This is a male night heron.
And this is a female night heron.
Casini’s Ripple
I went on down to the Casini ripple where I sat for about twenty minutes watching to see if any big fish would come up. The ripple was real shallow and it would be hard for a big fish to cross it right now. I didn’t see anything while I was there. You just never know if you’ll see anything here though.
This is the Casini ripple which is the first physical obstacle in the river for the big fish after they enter the river. Of course, the first real obstacles are the seals and sea lions. Notice how shallow the water is here right now. High tide will bring it up though.
I didn’t stay down at the Casini Ripple too long as I wanted to head back up river with the sun still shining so after a short time , I headed back up the river.
Everything was so scenic I took a lot of pictures, but there is only so much room for them here. I try to keep it at ten pictures a day, but usually go over that.
While going back up the river I saw this little duck. A Redhead maybe? There were a lot of ducks on the river today.
Just as I was going around the Sheraton beach area, these bovinasorous charged down to the river. They weren’t after me though, they just wanted a drink of water, so I sneaked on by them.
Just above that, I saw this thing shoot out in the water and a dog swim out to get it. The local theater owner and his dog were playing in the river and having a great time. I should note that only the dog was in the water though. :O)
A fox in the bushes
I made it back up to the Villa Grande Hole, all in the sun and just as I was leaving the hole, I saw something that looked like a fox up in the brush, just above me. I was too close to make any fast movements and I thought I might scare it off, so I immediately backed my kayak out into the river away from it about thirty feet, so as not to spook it. I’ve found this little trick works good on Otter’s too.
This is the first view I had of it.
This is my view from where I backed off to. Can you see the fox?
Maybe this will help you out a bit.
Because I had backed off, it didn’t run away. I watched it for about ten minutes.
It seemed to be just about as curious of me as I was of it.
It finally went off to hide in the bushes, so I continued on up the river. The guys cutting the big trees down earlier were still at it and still making a lot of noise as I passed on by them.
Here is my view of them as I paddled on by.
I was back at Monte Rio just after three PM and took my boat out and went on home for the day.
Nice day kayaking Monte Rio.