Sunday March 16, 2014 Monte Rio CA.
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An Osprey was the first thing I saw today while kayaking
I put my boat in at Monte Rio today and headed down stream. I was going to go down to the Duncan’s Mills bridge and back.
Right away, there was this bird bathing in the water just in front of me. An osprey was taking a bath in the river, splashing a lot. It mostly ignored me as I went by and just kept splashing away.
I left it to it’s bath and paddled on by and headed down the river. This is the view as I went, it was about eleven in the morning.
When I arrived at the Villa Grande corner, the local osprey was in it’s nest, making a squawking noise. It’s mate was circling up in the air above it.
I continued on down the river, past Sheridan beach and stopped for a break at this spot by the rocks, looking back up the river.
A pair of Merganser ducks passed by me fairly close. The male on the left and the female on the right. They eat mostly little fish and are very good at fishing for them.
I continued on down the river, past Casini’s and on down almost to the Duncan’s Mills Bridge before I turned around and headed back up the river. I didn’t see any sea lions or seals hunting fish in the Casini area today. I took my time and cruised slowly along the shoreline heading back up the river.
Another Osprey was up in the tree by Rein’s beach. It kept an eye on me as I paddle by, but didn’t fly off.
This is my view as I entered the Rein’s beach area going back up the river.
As I rounded the corner of Rein’s beach, I heard what I thought was a dove calling. coo, coo. It reminded me of how they do this call all the time down in Quartzsite AZ. when they are nesting.
I looked around for them and found out the call was being made by some wild band tailed pigeons. Seems they were helping themselves to some bird feed someone along the river had put out. Going from this tree down to the deck to feed and back to the tree to keep watch.
I continued on up the river at a leisurely pace, going past the Villa Grande area and on up below Monte Rio.
Two turtles were sunning along the bank of the river as I passed. The one on the right is about eight inches in length and the one on the left is about six inches.
There were a pair of wood ducks on the edge just as I approached the Monte Rio area. They started to fly off, but changed their mind and stayed at the last moment. They headed for the brush as wood ducks do, to hide.
Just as I was approaching the boat ramp this big ol male mallard came by to say hi. The mallard ducks are fairly friendly at the boat ramp. The locals have been feeding them for a number of years, so they are fairly use to people. Because of this a number of the other wild ducks in the area are fairly friendly too.
I pulled my boat out of the water and went on home. I worked a bit in the yard picking up brush, taking it easy on my sore foot. Of course that meant I didn’t work very hard, but one can only do what one can do.
Nice day on the river.