Friday November 21, 2014 Monte Rio CA.
Down and back
Today was the day the county recycling truck was supposed to come by to pick up all the old computer stuff I’ve accumulated over the years. I had about a dozen or so computers with monitors and a bunch of other stuff out in the front yard in a big pile. I got all the stuff out of my house last summer, now all I had to do was get rid of it. I waited around until noon when I got an email saying it wasn’t going to happen today. I covered all the stuff back up and headed for the river.
Monte Rio
I decided to go to Monte Rio and go down and back today.
I put my boat in the water and right away, I spotted a hawk being chased by two crows. The crows chased this red-tailed hawk onto this stump as I watched.
Right above the hawk were these turkey vultures. I looked around for something that might be attracting them, but couldn’t find anything dead.
Steelhead fishing
I started down the river and spotted these two fishermen steelhead fishing. The river is open to steelhead fishing but is closed for salmon fishing all the time now.
I stopped and shot the bull with them for a bit, they’d gotten some bites, but no keepers. I continued on down the river at a slow pace, as always.
This is what the river looked like just below the town of Monte Rio.
Spotted a red shouldered hawk
Just past that spot, I could hear a hawk screeching overhead and it landed in this tree on my left. Looks like a red shouldered hawk to me? I left it there and continued on down.
I didn’t go far when I ran into this pair of merganser ducks, the male is on the left. Usually, I don’t see the males with the females this time of year.
Redhead ducks?
Then I saw these ducks over on the side that looked a little like female mergansers. I think they might redheads? But maybe they are some type of hooded merganser? They took off and flew down the river.
Puddle Ducks
I continued a bit and ran into this little bird that I call a puddle duck, although, I think it is a grebe. I call them puddle ducks as they just sink in the water when they go under, leaving a puddle where they sank. It was fishing in the weeds and kept on doing so as I passed on by it.
I paddled on down to the Villa Grande hole area and on past it, where I ran into this male mallard duck who seemed to have had an itch.
Turned around at Sheridan beach
The river was real nice, so I worked my way down just past Sheridan beach were I sat and enjoyed the day for awhile, before turning back up the river.
I had the river mostly to myself today as I paddled back up the river and stopped at this spot just above the Villa Grande Hole, looking up the river towards Monte Rio.
A harbor seal buddy shows up
Continuing on past there, this harbor seal came up by me and followed me up the river for about a quarter mile or so. I think it’s one of my buddies from down at Jenner. One of the ones that spends most of it’s time in the river. I pass by it most days at Jenner so it knows me well and has mostly accepted me as much as a seal will, knowing I’m not going to harm it.
When I got to a shallow spot in the river, the seal left me and I continued on up.
Here, I’m going along just below Monte Rio.
Kingfisher barfs
When I got near the boat ramp, I stopped for a bit to enjoy the day before taking my boat out for the day, when I spotted a great blue heron off to the side by the ramp.
But as I was approaching it to take a photo, I noticed this king fisher near by, so I focused on it. It opened it’s beak just as I started taking a photo. It did this a couple times, then regurgitated some fish stuff, which I got a photo of, but it turned out blurred.
The king fisher finally took off as they do, usually just before I can get a picture of them.
I turned my attention onto this great blue heron sitting on the shoreline.
I hung around for a bit more before taking my boat out and heading on in for the day.
Nice day.