Friday July 25, 2014 Jenner CA.
Lots of Birds feeding in the estuary today
I was slow getting it going this morning for some reason, but I did get it going and was down at Jenner around noon. Ray’s truck was in the parking lot, but I never did catch up with him.
Lots of other people in the parking lot and kayakers in the river too. I put my boat in the water and headed down towards the river’s mouth, going along the north side of Penny Island.
The sun was out and there was a light wind. Real nice out.
I passed this great blue heron fishing on the shoreline. It stopped and watched me until I passed and then continued on with what it was doing.
And egret was on a limb near the west end of Penny Island, with the light wind blowing it’s feathers.
I saw some birds on the shore on the west end of Penny Island, so I went over to check them out. They turned out to be terns, resting on the gravel. There were some seagulls there too.
The river’s mouth area
I continued on down to the river’s mouth. It was open deep and at high tide as I approached. Lots of harbor seals were taking it easy on the north beach and some birds too.
Paddled into the river’s mouth
I paddled into the river’s mouth a bit, since It was high tide, the water was coming into the river and not going out, so I didn’t have to be concerned with getting sucked out into the ocean.
Some harbor seals were beaching on the shore in front of me.
Birds fishing away
I hung around the mouth area for about an hour, then headed back up the river, past Penny Island, where I saw these white pelicans and cormorants fishing away.
The cormorants seemed to be fishing more than the pelicans. I followed them around and watched them until the cormorants flew off down river a bit to fish and the pelicans moved on up the river towards Paddy’s rock.
Some of the pelicans took flight and flew on over to Paddy’s rock to rest on the shore.
This group of pelicans grazed there way up to Paddy’s rock. They seemed to be picking up vegetation and all the other stuff that lives in it, including some little fish.
Preening Pelicans
All the white pelicans pulled up on the beach at Paddy’s rock and preened before taking a nap. This was one of the larger ones, preening.
A friendly osprey
I paddled across the river to eagle’s landing and just as I was starting past that, an osprey flew out of a tree, likely because I startled it. It only flew a short distance into another tree where it stayed while I paddled under it and took pictures. This one seems to be getting used to me?
I hung around the eagle’s landing area and watched all the different birds feeding and resting in the area.
A flock of cormorants came in from down river and landed across the river from me just below the white pelicans at Paddy’s rock.
Resting after a hard days fishing
By now, must of the birds where resting on the shoreline and most of the fishing had stopped. It was going to low tide, so maybe that had something to do with it, or they might just all be full from a days fishing?
I headed on back down the river and was off the water just after five PM and went on home for a nap and didn’t do much the rest of the day.