Friday September 13, 2013, Jenner CA.
The day started out calm and later turned to windy
I got a late start today and didn’t get down to Jenner until about noon. I put my boat in the water and crossed on over to Penny Island. There were several seagulls fishing for crabs near the east end as I went by.
This one just caught one of the little baby crabs.
I watched this one devour this one. It’s too big to swallow whole, so first, they pull off and eat the legs and claws. Note it has this one by the legs and is about to ripe them off and eat them.
In this picture, it has all the legs and claws off and is now ready to devour this last piece.
From there I worked my way up the south side of the river at a leisurely pace, pass Eagle’s landing and on up to the highway one bridge were something caught my eye. Otters.
When I saw them , I backed off as to try not to spook them and followed them up above the bridge watching them catch and eat things as they went. This one just popped up and is eating something? Not sure what, likely a fish or a little crab.
I got ahead of them and was on a glide to shore just ahead of them, when they popped out of the water just in front of me and climbed ashore. I was closer then I wanted to be, but if I put the camera down to paddle back, I would spook them, so I just glided closer until they saw me and spooked just the same. They were in a rather dark place, so I didn’t get any prime pics of them. This is the best I could do.
They quickly entered the water again and swim ahead and I saw them leave the water for some bushes in a hurry and that was the last I saw of them this day. Going to shore for a nap is one of the ways they ditch me.
I continued on up the river past Willow Creek and this egret was fishing near the shoreline as I passed.
My goal was to paddle up to seal heaven, as I approached the area I took this photo of the view upriver, still nice and calm. Seal heaven is where the big redwood logs are in the water. They like to use them to rest on.
I passed a common grebe, I think it was. This is the first one I’ve seen this fall, more will come now and stay in the area for quite awhile, maybe until spring?
When I made it to seal heaven there were some seals there on the submerged redwood logs.
Here are four of them as I passed.
Another seal and a cormorant sunning themselves.
I turned the boat around at seal heaven and started back down the river, noting that the wind was picking up and the closer I got to the rivers mouth, the stronger the wind got.
It was now blowing hard enough that I had to be careful taking my camera out as to do that, I had to hold my paddle with one hand and hold the camera with the other hand, all the time trying to keep my boat pointing in the right direction to keep waves from coming over the side and getting me and the camera wet and the wind trying to grab my paddle form me too.
I chanced a picture near the river’s mouth, which is below. Lot’s of birds on the beach near the mouth and lots of wind and whitecaps too.
Too windy to really take pictures and paddle at the same time. I didn’t stay down there very long before I headed on back to the take out for the day and was off the water around three thirty PM.
Had a nice day paddling Jenner, even with the windy conditions later in the day.