Chilly Breezy Paddle, Sunny Warm, Foggy, Chilly, Home

Friday February 16, 2016 Jenner CA.

A cool breeze off the ocean

There was a cool breeze coming off the ocean as I put my boat in the water at Jenner this morning. The breeze wasn’t much, but it’s cool air was penetrating, so I headed on over to the little protected area on the upper end of Penny Island to sit a bit and see if things would warm up as it got closer to noon.

So, I pulled into this spot and sat and waited and watched what was going on around me.

I did a little napping too, but my naps usually mean  my eyes are closed but my ears are open to hear anything that might be going on around me. When I hear something, my eyes open to check it out.

I was sitting here napping when I heard some splashing just in front of me and I could also hear a wild turkey going off up on the grassy hillside somewhere which I kept searching for every time I heard it.

Frolicking seals

The splashes turned out to be these two harbor seals frolicking. Frolicking is what I call them doing when they appear to be playing or mating or both. They are splashing around and mingling, but not hunting or eating fish as far as I can tell.

Wild turkey

I heard the wild turkey up on the hillside often, but it took a long time to finally spot it. It seemed to like to hang out with that bovine. I looked for wild pigs up there too, but didn’t see any.

Warming up

After over an hour in the channel, the breeze changed and it had warmed up just a little, so I headed off the upper end of the island, headed up the river along the south shoreline going past these merganser ducks. The male is squirting, just in case it might have to take off, but they stayed as I passed on by.

Just past them, this snowy egret was sitting and resting on this perch.

The breeze was dying, but the fog/cloud cover was blocking the sun as I continued up the river.

Finally the fog and clouds started to lift as I paddled along.

Waters going flat

As I paddled, the breeze dyed down to nothing and things got real calm.

I paddled up to what I call muskrat and sat here and relaxed and enjoyed the day, looking back down to the town of Jenner, down river.

I could see the two horses across from me up on the hillside grazing the new spring grasses.

Honking geese

I watched as these two groups of geese walked off the grasses where they had been grazing and came onto the water for a swim.

Being mating season and all, there was some rivalry between the two groups of geese.

I watched the geese until they swam back over to the grassy shore and left the water to head back to their grazing.

There was a great blue heron on Paddy’s rock that got a little nervous as I passed, but it didn’t fly off.

Preening osprey

I was watching the heron on Paddy’s rock when I noticed there was an osprey with the birds on the beach, just by the rock. It was preening and getting a drink of water as I watched.

By the time I noticed the osprey, I was fairly close to it, and it got nervous and flew off.

I continued down along the river’s edge going past these geese resting in the grass.

These two female merganser ducks checked me out as I passed.

Cooling down again

About this time, the breeze came back and the fog started to come in and things started cooling down again. One should expect changing conditions when at the ocean and I do. I’m mostly dressed to keep warm, but a cool breeze can be penetrating.

I was paddling along here almost  to the town of Jenner when I was getting chilled. The fog was rolling in acting like an air conditioner.

I was thinking the sun was likely out at home and a lot warmer than down here, so I went on in for the day.

Ken was at the boat ramp so I shot the bull with him for a bit, when Dan and his wife Sarah came by so we shot the bull some more. :O)

No sun at home either

I went on home. When I pulled into the yard, I found it just as chilly as down at Jenner, so I went in the house and that was my day.