Diving Pelicans and I Just Missed the Rain

Monday November 9, 2015 Jenner CA.

It was raining good as I got it going this morning. Checking the weather, I could see it was going to let up around eleven, so I waited a bit before taking off to Jenner to kayak for the day. I put my rain pants on just in case as they said there might be some thunder showers.

I put the boat in the water and paddled across to Penny island. I could hear and see some big waves crashing over the jetty down by the open river’s mouth, so I started heading in that direction, down along the shoreline of the island.jenner

 

The wind was down and there was more sun than clouds out as I passed by this great blue heron.heron

 

I could see a bunch of birds down by the mouth. As I started to paddle across the water towards the mouth area, some brown pelicans started doing dives around me, fishing away. Those are brown pelicans looking for fish up in the air there.river

 

I paddled right into the area the pelicans were fishing. This one dove down for a fish, then took off again.pelican

 

This pelicans dove right next to me. I missed the dive, but this is just a moment after the dive, before it swallowed what it caught.peldive

 

I think I see one little fish in it’s pouch which it swallowed right after this picture.peleat

 

Big waves crashing

I left the pelicans flying around looking for fish and diving on them and moved over to the river’s open mouth to watch the big waves crash.

Here I’m sitting in my boat right in front of the open river’s mouth, looking out into the Pacific ocean as a big wave hits the rocksmouth3

 

I watched some big waves hit and make some big splashes.wave

 

I stayed in that spot for quite some time watching the waves and the wild life. Some of the brown pelicans were resting on the sandy beach, which I went by as I was leaving the mouth area.pelicans

 

I left the area and headed on up the river taking my time. Near the upper end of Penny Island I could see the cormorants diving and fishing away. They seemed to be in a school of little fish and were really going at it. Here’s just a few of the cormorants that were diving for fish.cormorants

 

I paddled on up to the muskrat area and sat around for a bit, doing a little day dreaming.

When I left there, I paddled across the river to the Paddy’s rock area where I could see some birds resting on the shore. This is looking down river towards the town of Jenner. You can see the birds towards the right.jenner2

 

I approached the birds.There were a bunch of mallard ducks and some cormorants resting there.ducks

 

From there I headed on in towards the boat ramp. The wind was coming up just a little, but I didn’t get rained on.sun2

 

I pulled my boat out and drove on home for a nap and that was it for the day.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

4 Responses to Diving Pelicans and I Just Missed the Rain

  1. Patti Godwin says:

    I agree with Dan about the camera!
    I was out there Tuesday, today and sat at the mouth too. You get closer than I dare, to be honest. I couldn’t believe the number of seagulls and pelicans sitting there along with the sleeping seals. Beautiful sunny day.

    • Bob says:

      Hi Patti,
      I didn’t dare to get too close to the open mouth either for a long time. But after being down there for eight or so years, I’ve learned how things work a bit, so get a bit closer than I used to. I’m still pretty careful as a mistake can cost one dearly. I always approach the area carefully as it’d different all the time. Better to be safe, than wet or dead. :O)

  2. Dan says:

    Great photos, Bob. I especially like the two looking out the mouth at the big waves in the ocean. The second one that shows the wave exploding over the rock and into the air is one you took at just the right moment. I like the photos coming from your “replacement” camera.

    • Bob says:

      I do have to give a lot of credit for my pictures to my camera’s. The replacement camera is the top of Canon’s consumer line, a G30, which I already had and have been using sometimes. It has their fastest processor in it, the same as their pro cameras. This means it can focus real fast as it has to, to shot video. It takes much better pics than my older one that I messed up, but, the stills resolution is less than the old camera which I don’t like as well. But it was designed to take video first and stills second. But despite that, the newer camera takes better pictures if that makes any sense to you.

Comments are closed.