Paddling to Rein’s Beach from Monte Rio and Back with Lots of Birds and a Fisherman

Sunday March 15, 2015 Monte Rio CA.

Paddle Monte Rio, CA.

Today, I decided to Paddle down from Monte Rio, so I drove down to their boat ramp and put my boat in the water around 11 this morning. I didn’t see any fishermen’s boat trailers in the parking lot, so I assume steelhead fishing has slowed for now.

This male mallard duck greeted me as I left the boat ramp. It came up close to me, like about two feet. Monte Rio has some real friendly ducks.

Up the river or down?

I hadn’t made up my mind whether to go up river or down river today. Once I was in my boat, I looked at the shallow spot that moves fast just below the Monte Rio bridge which is the only spot I’d have to work at if I was to go up river. The water was moving pretty fast in that spot, so I let my boat drift down stream and I was on my way down the river.

Just below what is known as the slot by the fishermen, I came up on this fisherman. It was Brian, who lives down there. I stopped to talk with him a bit. Not much fish action as far as the steelhead, but as I was talking with him one of those hatchery type troutish fish about twelve inches long got on his hook and jumped out of the water in front of us and then slipped his barbless hook in an instant and was gone as we watched.

I continued on down the river. Just below where I was talking with Brian, I saw this Blue Jay along the shoreline. This time of year, these birds seem to come to the shoreline in numbers.

Headed down to the Villa Grande hole

Right now, the wind was down and the river looked like this as I was headed to the Villa Grande hole down the river as far as you can see.

Over on my right, I spotted these two birds feeding in the weeds, a great blue heron and a male mallard duck. The heron would watch for any fish the duck would flush as it fed in the weeds and eat them up if it could.

A sunning turtle

And to my left this turtle was sunning on this redwood log and splashed into the water as I paddled by.

Just before I got to the Villa Grande hole, I spied this Pie billed grebe diving and keeping an eye on me.

I pulled into the Villa Grande hole which was nice and calm and sat for awhile, just watching when I noticed this cormorant sitting up in this holey dead tree. The tree reminded me of the Ents in Lord of the Rings.

Down the river

I left the Villa Grande hole and continued down the river a couple hundred yards and stopped for a bit under a tree. When I looked back up the river, I could see Andrew was walking around the gravel with his big dog, so I paddled back up the river to see what his fishing report was. He said he hadn’t been fishing much lately, but from what he had heard, steelhead were still coming up the river, but in small numbers, such as just a couple at a time. We talked more fishing and then I headed down the river again.

At Sheridan beach I found this cormorant sitting on a redwood stump. I had to paddle by it, so was able to get fairly close to it, before it got nervous and took off down the river.

Eventually, I pulled into Moscow hole which is at Rein’s Beach and I jumped this Green Heron out of the bushes and it landed just in front of me. It sat there for a bit, before taking off again. Most of the time the green heron’s don’t sit around long for taking pictures .

I found a spot across from Rein’s beach to sit and watch for awhile. Some mergansers were sitting in the gravel across the river from me. This a a pair of mergansers, male is on the right.

As I watched, eventually this pair of wood ducks popped out of the brush, sat there for a moment and then flew across the river and under some trees.

Turned around here

That was as far down the river I wanted to go today as I had to paddle back up the river. I headed back up the river and went by this resting pair of merganser ducks just up from Moscow hole.

What’s the spot up ahead in the water?

I was paddling along here at Sheridan beach when I saw something in the water up ahead. See that little spot up there just below right center?

As I paddled closer that little spot turned out to be an osprey taking a bath. As I paddled even closer to it, it bathed and preened like it wanted to get it done before I got too close and it had to leave. It finished what it was doing and jumped into the air and flew on up the river.

I continued on up the river when I ran into this great white egret fishing in the weeds. It was catching something that I never did make out. It has one of them in it’s bill in this picture

I ran into Brian just below were I saw him on the way down. He hadn’t caught anything, but he did have a nice day. I continued on up to the boat ramp at Monte Rio and took my boat out of the water and went on home.

Moving rock from the new well site

I needed to move some of the rock from the new well site. When they drilled the well, they pulled a bunch of rock out of the ground and it was laying around the well casing, so needed moving to places in the yard that needed some rock, like places in the driveway. I could use the wheel barrel or my brother’s tractor scoop to move the rock. I elected to use my brother’s tractor so I found him to get a key from him. Once I had a key, I moved the tractor by the well and preceded to use my shovel to fill up the tractor’s scoop, as there wasn’t enough room to fill it using the tractor.

I moved three scoops of rock, about half of it. That was enough work for my back today, so I sat around in my chairs and enjoyed the rest of the day, until the day cooled down and I went on inside for the night.

Nice day, kayaking below Monte Rio.