Monday November3,2014 Jenner CA.
I was down at Jenner at ten thirty this morning putting my boat in the water, I thought.
I was thinking Ray would show up, so I waited across the river by the island, but he didn’t show, so I headed on up the river towards Paddy’s rock, where the coots and the coyote were yesterday.
Unusually cool this morning
This was my view at the east end of Penny Island as I waited for Ray to show up, looking up the river. There was a cool breeze blowing down the river and I was thinking it was a bit coolish.
Not as many coots today
I paddled on over to Paddy’s rock and noticed there weren’t as many coots around today and I didn’t spot the coyote in it’s regular spot either. But the sun was warming things up as I looked across the river towards Eagle’s landing.
I heard a bunch of splashing and looked over to see some cormorants fishing.
There were a few coots around and on the shoreline, so the coyote must not be nearby.
Ray shows up
Around what I thought was eleven thirty I saw Ray’s truck go by so I knew he would be up this way soon, so I headed down the north river bank looking for birds and maybe the coyote along the shoreline.
And the coyote shows up too
I really didn’t think I’d see the coyote, but when I got down near the end of the trees, I saw it leaving the edge of the river.
I could see Ray working his way up the other side of the river as I turned around and looked for the next place the coyote might pop out, which it did here.
By now Ray was just across the river from me and I was sure he could see this coyote too. It seems to be sniffing something on the ground here. Then it moved off and Ray joined me.
We checked the trees along the river as we paddled along, but didn’t see the coyote again.
Headed up the river to Seal Haven
We decided to continue up the river to Seal Haven.
Along the way, I spotted this little grebe with some kind of a fish or ell. Maybe a snakefish, which the biologist had showed me were in the estuary when they caught some in their nets. It has a hard time getting these down, or maybe it’s just trying to kill it before it swallows it?
We ran into more coots above the highway one bridge as we paddled along.
Seal haven is just up ahead, but because of the high water from the river’s mouth being closed all the logs there were under water, so no seals here today.
We checked out the Willow Creek area
We decided to go check out Willow Creek, which is in this canyon across the river from us.
It was nice and calm and peaceful in Willow Creek, so we spent some time there taking it easy and just enjoying the day.
I seemed to have missed the time change
While we were sitting there shooting the bull, Ray said I must have gotten here early this morning as he got here early too, around ten thirty. Huh, I saw you arrive around eleven thirty. He said, didn’t you set your clock back, you must have gotten here real early.
When we left that spot, we paddled down the south side of the river at our slow pace.
More coots at Penny Island
When we got back to the little channel on the east end of Penny Island there were a bunch of coots there. We watched as they swam down to this spot, then spooked and headed back to the right. Something spooked them. What.
The spooked coots moving fast to the right, away from the bushes on the left.
And otter spooks the coots
I paddled over by the bushes to see if I could see anything that might have frightened them and at first saw nothing, but then an otter popped up for just a short time and dove and was gone.
We continued across the river to the boat ramp and went on home for the day.
I worked on my car heater fan problem, but didn’t have any luck getting it going, so went on in for a nap.
Another nice day.