Kayaking Below Monte Rio with Turtles, Birds and Steelhead Fishermen

Saturday March 7, 2015 Monte Rio CA.

I was at the Monte Rio boat launch around eleven this morning and put my boat in the water. I hadn’t made up my mind whether to go up the river or down the river. The sun was out and there was a little breeze.

I saw some boats in the slot just below the launch area, so headed on down to chat with the fishermen. They’d had some hookups in the morning, but things were slow now. I shot the bull for a bit, then continued on down the river.fishboats

 

This is what the river looked like as I headed on down the river just below Monte Rio.russianriver

 

This turtle caught my eye as I paddled on by.turtle

 

And this great blue heron was fishing and the ducks where eating something in the water.heron

 

I’m just paddling into the Villa Grande area in this picture.villa

 

There were some blue jays in the willow trees along the shoreline and here is one of them.bluejay

 

These steelhead fishermen were headed on up the river and passed on by me.fishing

 

There is an osprey nest at Villa Grande hole which is occupied by a pair of osprey. Here’s one of the osprey just as it jumped off the nest.nest

 

I stopped at Villa Grande for a bit just enjoying the day, then continued on down the river with this view.river

 

I made it down to the Sheridan Beach where this pair of merganser ducks were resting on the beach there, with the killdeer.mergansers

 

I continued paddling on down the river to Moscow hole at Rein’s beach where I spotted another turtle.turtle3

 

I pulled onto this log in the middle of the river and stopped to watch for awhile, looking back up to Rein’s beach on the left.reins

 

There were osprey flying around over my head as there is another nest at this spot.osprey

 

I decided Rein’s beach was far enough down the river to go for the day, so after a good break there, I started back up the river where I went by this turkey vulture getting some sun on Sheridan beach.vulture

 

And another turtle was sunning on a log as I paddled by.turtle2

 

It wasn’t long before I was coming up on Monte Rio. This picture is what it looked like as I was coming back towards Monte Rio which is just under that hill as far up the river as you can see.monterio

 

Something caught my eye along the shoreline, so I went over to investigate. It turned out to be a pair of mallard ducks feeding.mallards

 

I stopped to talk with the fishermen fishing from their boats in the slot. No action this afternoon, but it was a real nice day.

I continued on to the boat ramp and put my boat on the car and headed on home for the day. I had planned to do some chores when I got home, but it was so nice out, that didn’t happen and I was only able to hold some yard chairs down for the rest of the day.

Another nice spring day.

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