Tuesday November 5, 2013 Jenner, CA.
First, the parts for the van
First thing this morning I went down to the parts house to pick up my parts to repair the van. They looked like the right parts, so I picked them up and headed for Jenner to kayak for the day.
Yes, the river’s mouth is still closed
As I approached, I could see the river’s mouth was still closed. The water level read about seven feet at the visitor center, so it is close to the stage for them to take it out again.
Today, the wind was mostly down, a nice fall day. I put my boat in the water and was paddling across the river to Penny Island when this lone otter surfaced near me. I followed it a bit, but it was trying to lose me and it did as it seemed to go into Penny Island and was gone.
I continued on towards the rivers mouth. This is the view as I left the west end of Penny island, looking down river towards the mouth.
I paddled over to the closed river mouth and took this picture of where the mouth is supposed to be right now. It’s closed up tight and the rough ocean waves were breaking over the sand and coming into the river.
There were a lot of seagulls on the beach and in the water and a few brown pelicans too.
Here are a couple of the brown pelicans, having a bit of a bath.
I hang around the mouth area for awhile just taking it easy. After awhile I got tired of that and headed back to Penny island. The island is flooded on the west end from the mouth being closed. This is what it looks like today looking into the island on the west end.
I paddled into the island to see what was in there. While I was in there checking it out and taking it easy, that otter popped up right in front of me. It didn’t stay long and was gone again.
I then paddled back to the west end of Penny Island and sat in the reeds for a bit.
Here I am sitting in the reeds on the west end of Penny Island. Lots of seagulls sitting out in the water today.
After awhile, I moved up the back channel of Penny Island where I ran into a bunch of coots feeding.
I passed them by and headed to the little channel on the east end of Penny Island and sat there for a bit, before moving on up the river on the south shore side.
I’d been trying to get a picture of one of he Marsh hawks that have been hunting around Penny island and one finally sat still long enough for me to get a picture of it near the east end of Penny Island.
This is a picture of the hawk. I think it is also called a Harris Hawk? I’ve seen them catch and eat birds down here.
On up the south shore stopping along the way for breaks and past Eagle’s landing and a little beyond, before turning around and heading back down the river.
This seal was laying on the log with some cormorants as I went by.
I slowly worked my way back in to the visitor center take out and was off the water and went on home around four pm.
I puttered around the yard a bit and that was it for the day.
Nice day.
