Tuesday June 17, 2014 Jenner CA.
First thing was to check on how the summer dams were coming along
I stopped at Johnson’s beach in Guerneville this morning to see how the guys were doing with the summer dam installation? 
Things were looking good, so I went on down to the other dam to see how that was coming along.
This is the Vacation Beach summer dam and road crossing, a mile or so below Guerneville.
Here I found the guys hard at it. They were erecting the guard boards and will put more boards in the middle of the dam to bring the water up once they get the guard boards in place. Everyone except me was very busy so I left them at it and went on down to Jenner to kayak for the day.
First though, I took this picture of the bridge and road the county road workers are installing for the summer roadway across the dam.
On down to Jenner on a scenic road
I drove on down to Jenner on the same old highway I use all the time. Highway 116 is designated a scenic highway and I get to drive it often and have to remember not to take this neat road for granted, especially since it takes me to one of my kayaking places.
I arrived at Jenner to a slightly breezy day, and went on up the river at a leisurely pace.
This was one of my views as I traveled along the south shoreline going up the river.
Osprey fishing away
I heard this big ploppy water splash sound and looked over to see an osprey coming up out of the water about a hundred feet from me, with a little fish. It flew around a bit, then landed in a tree near me and ate the little fish.
I saw a lot of merganser fishing action across the river from me so I went on over to see what they were up to. A group of younger merganser ducks was chasing fish out of the water onto the grassy shore and getting out of the water to pick them up to eat.
Here are two of the merganser ducks with fish that they just picked up off the shoreline after chasing the fish out of the water up onto shore.
Around Paddy’s rock
Since I was already by Paddy’s rock, I paddled around it to get out of the wind and there was a great blue heron fishing there. This heron just struck at a fish, but it might of only gotten some shore goo?
When I came back around Paddy’s rock, this is the view I had of some merganser ducks that were resting after getting there fill of fish. I also saw a nice looking steak too that luckily wasn’t interested in me or the birds.
The wind is dying to a breeze
The breezy wind was dying down to just a breeze by now, so I headed down to the rivers mouth area as I haven’t been down there since I’ve returned from my desert trip and was wondering how it was doing?
I always go by this big redwood log with the stump and a lot of times this heron is fishing in this spot and sometimes just resting there too as it’s protected from the wind.
No go down the back channel today
I took a look at the back channel of Penny Island to see if I could make it down there, but with the low tide, I’d have to get out of the boat to get through there in one spot, so I returned to the other side of the island and went on down to the river’s mouth. The wind stayed down to a breeze by now, which was good.
The river’s mouth has stayed open for now
Before I left on the desert trip, I expected the river’s mouth to close on up, but it didn’t.
What it’s done instead is the higher high tides have pushed the ocean sand that might have closed the mouth further into the river, keeping the mouth from closing, so far.
Here you can see the river’s mouth is open. The harbor seals are laying on the sand that the ocean has moved into the river in front of the mouth from the high tide water washing into the river’s mouth. It carves out that sand you see on the right and moves it into the river which the seals are resting on.
Some of the harbor seals on the sand the ocean has moved into the river’s mouth area. Some seagulls and some brown pelicans are on the sandy beach in the background taking it easy, like most everything down here right now, including me.
Just sitting around watching the goings on
I hung around the mouth area for an hour or so watching the goings on and then headed on in for the day.
Talked with some biologists
As I was pulling my boat out of the water, I ran into some of the biologists doing the steelhead tracking study and talked with them a bit before going on home.
As I was loading my boat I saw the biologists sitting up on the visitor center deck by some kind of metal box, so I asked what the heck that one was for as they are always putting these contraptions around for me to figure out what the heck they do?
Turned out this box recorded from two transponders out in the water in front of the visitor center to register when any of their tagged fish they are tracking gets in range.
Yard work
I said thanks for the info and went on home for the day, where I did some watering, washed the van, well, ok, I hosed it off. It doesn’t need to be that clean, as it will just get dirty again, I hope. :O)
I did a bit of napping and then went outside again to cut some blackberry vines out of the yard, a never ending task and I know they will win in the end. I only was able to cut a small portion of them, but I’ll keep on working on them, until I die, I guess. :O)
That’s it for another fine day.
