Thursday November 28, 2013 Jenner CA.
Lots of birds in the Jenner area
As I approached Jenner, I could see the river’s mouth was still closed. The sun was out and there was only a light breeze when I put my boat in the water. I could hear the ocean waves pounding hard on the sandy beaches. It sure sounded like the ocean was real rough today.
I paddled across to Penny Island, and into the little channel on the east end and sat in that area for about a half hour before continuing on up the river. From there I crossed over to the south side. This duck has been using this log as a perch for the last several days. It’s been there as I go by and it’s not too much of a scardy cat, a, I mean bird. I pass it about thirty feet and it doesn’t fly off. I’m not sure what it’s called, maybe a shovel billed duck? Or a spoon billed duck? It sure has a big bill on it.
I was thinking today, I might go on up to the Seal Heaven area, about a mile above the highway one bridge, so I didn’t stop quite as often as I normally do. I wasn’t real energetic, so I decided to see if I could get at least up to the Willow creek area, which I did.
As I entered Willow creek, there were some coots in there that made all kinds of noise staying just ahead of me. Sure is a lot of coots on the river right now. They make it hard to sneak around, as they make a lot of noise flying to stay away from me.
This is Willow creek, just past the entrance with the coots blocking my way.
I just paddled into Willow creek and turned around and came back out and headed on up to Seal Heaven. Since the mouth is closed, the water level is high, which covers up most of the redwood logs at Seal Heaven, so there were no seals there today.
As long as I made it to Seals Heaven, I continued on up to Markham Hole and sat for just a bit before turning around and heading back down the river. The wind had come up quite a bit by now as I paddled down the north side of the river.
It wasn’t too long before the wind died back down. Some times the wind just comes up for awhile, an hour or two then dies back down, which was the case today.
I passed all these geese taking it easy on the shore.
There were some white geese that I hadn’t seen before with the other geese, maybe snow geese?
I continued on, under the highway one bridge and was headed for Paddy’s rock when I ran into these Mallard ducks, having a bit of a sleep.
Of course with me being so close, they woke up.
And some of them jumped into the air and flew off down the river.
I approached Penny Island and was trying to make up my mind which way to go, down the back side or into the little channel on the east end for a break. The break won, of course.
This is the old milk barn on Penny island. Note the wind has died down to calm.
After a good break, which I needed from paddling up the river and back, I headed down the north side of Penny Island. I passed a couple deer feeding on the grass.
Here is one of them.
There were a lot of seagulls on the water near the west end of Penny Island. Most of them took to the air as I approached and landed further away.
Here is my view of all the seagulls, looking down toward the river’s mouth area. A light breeze had come up by this time.
This is my view as I paddled on down to the river’s mouth area. A bunch of seals are beached on the sand up ahead.
The river’s mouth is closed up solid
The ocean was real rough, I heard it pounding on the beaches all day long. I paddled up to the sand that is closing the river’s mouth and took this photo. Calm river, rough ocean. Looks like the river will be closed until they open it again.
I hung around the mouth area for a bit before starting back.
There were a few of these grebes diving around down there.
I leisurely paddled on back to the launch ramp where I took this last photo.
Notice how flat the river is now. Great day.
Just another day on the river, kayaking Jenner.
