Cormorants and the Hatchery Fish Paddling Around Jenner

Tuesday February 16, 2016 Jenner CA.

Sunny warm day

The wind was down and the sun was out as I drove into Jenner today and put my boat in the water.

The sky was lite up with some nice clouds as I paddled down towards the river’s mouth area.

Lots of fishing cormorants

I paddled past these cormorants fishing for the just released hatchery fish on the way across the river.

River’s mouth is open, but perched

The river’s mouth was open and has moved back behind the jetty. It’s open, but restricted some. What the biologists call perched.

Lots more cormorants

Down near the end of the river a big bunch of cormorants were resting on the sand.

Harbor seals playing with a big fish

I was hanging around down by the river’s end and these harbor seals were real active. They seemed to be playing with a big steelhead fish that was mostly bone when I saw it briefly.

After awhile, I headed on back to Penny Island and started up the south back channel where I ran into this snowy egret just resting there on the gravel By the big redwood stump.

River otters check me out

I worked my way up the back channel up to this spot where I was sitting at the redwood log graveyard when these three river otters popped up right in front of me for just a bit before diving back under the water and disappearing.

Even more cormorants

I moved on up to Eagle’s landing where I stopped here and could see this big flock of cormorants resting over by Paddy’s rock. We went from less than a dozen a few days ago to this at this spot, all because the hatchery fish are tasty.

Osprey like them too

I saw an osprey fly into a tree near me so I paddled over to check it out. It also likes to dine on the hatchery fish. It’s eating a fish and put it’s wings up to keep it’s balance as it tore into the fish.

I see Steve fishing

I thought I could see Steve fishing just above the highway one bridge, so I started over that way going past this nice pair of merganser ducks. As far as I can tell, these ducks eat small fish that are smaller than the hatchery fish.

I paddled on past this pair of mallard ducks and went over to talk with Steve who was fishing over on the right. You can fish above the bridge, but not below it.