Checking Out the Turkey Vulture Nests

Wednesday April 6, 2022 Jenner CA.

Paddle day

I was thinking it would be a good idea to check out the two turkey vulture nests I know about down by the Russian River Estuary at Jenner as it’s spring and there might be some young ones in the nests.

River’s mouth is closed

The wind was down today so I got it going and was down there just after noon. I noticed right away the river water level was up high which meant the river’s mouth was closed to the ocean damning up the river and causing the water level to rise.

I put my boat in the water and paddled across the river to Penny Island and continued up the river. This is the top end of Penny Island where I pulled into this spot for a bit to watch and enjoy the day for a bit.

 

Buzzard Rock

I worked my way up the river about a half mile or so to this rock where I wanted to go to shore and hike up to it, to check out a vulture nest nearby I knew about. I call this rock Buzzard Rock, even though turkey vultures aren’t buzzards.

 

Steep banks

With the river’s mouth closed the water level was up so there wasn’t any good landing spots, only steep river banks so I couldn’t land my boat here without getting real wet so I didn’t.

 

Turkey vultures landing

I was going to give up and go try the other place to see if it was any better but when I looked at Buzzard Rock again I had a big surprise. Lots of Turkey vultures were landing on the side of it near the turkey vulture nest. There’s three turkey vultures in this picture.

 

How many turkey vultures can you count in this one. I count 7, at least.

 

What could they be doing

I’m not sure what they were doing but  they seemed to like this spot which was just above where the nest was so maybe it had something to do with that.

 

The other nest

After watching for a good while I left to go see if I could get ashore at the other nesting spot which was here. Same problem, too steep to get out without getting wet.

 

A landing spot

However, I eyed this little creek and was able to push my boat into this spot with a bit of effort. I tied my boat up and made my way up through the brush as I had to hike up a steep hill to get to the Old Indian Rock on the top of the hill where I knew about another turkey vulture nest site.

 

There’s actually a trail up through here which I took and worked my way up the hill to the top.

 

Old Indian Rock

I was headed for the Old Indian Rock and was almost there.

 

The view

This is the view from that rock looking up the river.

 

The second nesting spot

And this is the place where the turkey vulture’s nest usually is. I checked it out but no vultures where using this nest this year. They usually just lay two eggs on the ground in a likely spot but build no nests.

 

I sat on the big rock for a bit taking it easy and enjoying the view.

Old nests of owls

After a bit I took another way down so I could go past these big owl nests up in some oak trees. This is one of the smaller ones. The larger ones are 6 to 8 feet across and the owls appear to live on the inside of them. I think they are barn owls.

 

Geese

I made it back to my boat and got back in the water without turning over the boat and headed back down the river going by these feeding geese.

 

I stopped here for a bit before heading on over to the Jenner boat ramp and took  my boat out of the water just after 5PM.

Nancy K.

Yes Nancy K. The drone takes stills or videos and stores them on the drone then transfers them to your phone which is used as the camera screen and flying software app on the controller.Then they can be transferred from the phone to a computer.

I got the boat loaded up and went on home for the day for a much needed nap.

Nice day.