Bob's Eyes

Friday March 20, 2015 Jenner CA.

Sometimes when the fog moves, it’s cold

As I arrived at Jenner this morning, I could see the fog was blowing out, as in leaving the area. I got out of my car at the boat ramp and was greeted with a cool wind off the ocean. I was thinking I should go back to Monte Rio to kayak, but what the hey? I put my warm stuff on and put the boat in the water and paddled across the river to Penny Island. The wind was blowing cold there too, so I retreated to the upper end of Penny Island where there is a little channel which is usually out of the wind and it was. I was sitting around there when the sun came out. It felt good warming me up, so I sat there enjoying the warmth.

I passed by this great blue heron on the way to the end of the island.

The fog moves on up the river

I’m sitting in the island channel. You can see the fog that has blown out of the area. Fog is that white cloud in the background, looking up the river. The other stuff is high clouds which had lots of breaks in them to let the sun through. With the fog blown out, the wind died down nicely now too.

Muskrat Nest beach

Now that the wind was down and the sun was out, I left the cover of the channel and headed on up the river to Muskrat nest beach and sat in this spot.

As you can see things changed to real nice as I sat in this spot watching the bird activity across the river. I was also listening for the gobble of wild turkeys, but didn’t hear any for the longest time.

Not many gobbles from the wild turkeys

The wild turkeys don’t seem to be gobbling much lately, but eventually, I heard one in the brush just behind me. I think the hens move into the brush to nest as it has a lot of protection for the birds. I heard the gobble several more times, but there was nothing to see.

After a good rest there, I started back down the river when I saw this turkey vulture land on buzzard’s rock which I was just below.

Lots of geese pairs on the river

I could hear a bunch of geese honking across the river so I paddled over there to have a look. Here’s of couple of the noise makers.

I was headed for Paddy’s rock when these ducks took off, skipping across the water.

On the gravel just on the other side of Paddy’s rock , I saw these birds getting some sun. A couple turkey vultures and some cormorants and a seagull or two. Click the picture for a better quality picture.

I continued paddling down the river’s shoreline, passing quite a few pairs of geese along the way. Then I crossed over the river to head down the Penny Island back channel as I was headed for the river’s mouth area.

I passed by these merganser ducks taking it easy on a big redwood log.

Going down the back channel this pair of mallard ducks crossed my path.

And just past those ducks where a pair of geese, and here’s one of them. They were grazing on the grasses in this spot.

Headed for the open river’s mouth

Moving right along, I came out of the back channel and cleared the end of Penny Island and this was my view as I headed down to the river’s mouth area. You can see the river’s mouth is open, to the far right of this picture. There are harbor seals, seagulls and cormorants resting on the beach to the left of the open mouth.

Here’s some of the cormorants and seagulls with a few harbor seals mixed in too. All taking it easy on the sandy beach.

The ocean is on the other side of the sandy beach and every so often a big wave would break over the jetty rocks.

After hanging around the river’s mouth for a bit, I paddled along the sandy beach away from the mouth area and stopped to look back at this spot. The day sure turned out nice.

Grazing Penny island deer

I left that spot and headed back over to Penny Island where I was paddling along it’s north shore when I jumped these two island deer browsing away on the grasses. They were only concerned with me for a moment then went back to the grasses.

I left the deer to their browsing and headed on in to the boat ramp where I took my boat out and went on home for the day.

Some yard work and some sitting around

I had a little nap then a cup of coffee and went out in the yard and did some shoveling of dirt to tidy up around the new well site. As the mud from the drilling dries up, I can shovel the dirt to  tidy things up and make the area look nice again. I did what I could and now will wait for some more of the mud to dry up.

I sat around in the yard for the rest of the day, until it started to cool down just before dark. That was my day.

Thursday March 19, 2015 Jenner CA.

The sun was out and the wind was down as I drove into Jenner this morning. I could see Ray in his kayak sitting across the river by Penny Island as I put my boat in the water. I joined Ray and we were sitting around deciding which way to go today. Since it was high tide and we hadn’t been down to the river’s mouth in awhile we had decided to head down that way.

Two friendly geese fly in

While we were sitting there making these tough decisions for the day, we could see these two geese flying in right in front of us and they landed right next to us like they must know us or something. They were only fifty feet or so from us and acting like we weren’t there even though we were in plain sight.

Eventually we started down towards the river’s mouth and the geese moved along just ahead of us, just like old pals.

Hunting harbor seals

We left the geese as they headed around the tip of Penny Island. We were crossing over the open water when we saw these large wakes along the shoreline which usually only means one thing. The harbor seals were hunting fish along the shoreline. Sure enough, eventually, a harbor seal popped up briefly and then was gone.

Headed for the open river’s mouth area

This was our view as we paddled down towards the river’s mouth area across the open river water.

As we entered the open mouth area, we could see these cormorants resting on the shore.

High tide

It was high tide, so ocean water was flowing into the open mouth. There was a lot of wood debrie in the mouth, indicating the spot the cold dense ocean water was diving under the warmer river water, right in front of us. A goldeneye duck swam by with some harbor seals on the sandy beach in the background.

Surfs up

There were some surfers enjoying the nice waves in front of the open mouth area.

A harbor seal checks out one of the surfers as he looks for a spot to get back out into the waves.

Just a little walk

Ray was wondering if I wanted to go for a little walk. We both were feeling a little lazy, so I suggested an easy walk to the Swamp Rock, so we left the mouth area and headed up the Penny Island back channel to the Swamp rock trailhead.

We landed our boats at the swamp rock trailhead here.

Headed to swamp rock across the swamp

We were headed for that rock up on the hillside, to the left of center top. It’s a little hard to make out in this picture, but you can see it is up on the hillside, across this swamp area. We were hoping the water had receded in the swamp so we could get up onto the rock.

The water had just barely gone out of the swamp, so we were able to cross the swamp area to the rock, with things being just a little muddy, but not too bad.

I’m following Ray across the swamp area in this picture.

I found the trail the animals use and made it to the front side of the rock where there is a place to sit and enjoy the day. Here, I’m waiting for Ray to catch up as he comes up the animal trail, looking across the river to the town of Jenner.

This is the place on the front of the rock, just below the top of it where we sat for a good while enjoying the view. Lots of little green ferns on the ground here.

Ray was just wondering

Ray was wondering what was up on top of the rock, which meant we had to find the trail up to it, which was fairly steep. I’m following Ray up to the top of the rock in this picture.

We made it to the top of the rock and Ray is checking out some scat or was it bones he found on the top of the rock. You can see it’s a fairly good view from this spot.

The top of the rock wasn’t enough

Being explorers, the top of the rock wasn’t enough. The animal trail seemed to continue up the hill, although not easy to get through the brush. There went the easy little walk we were going to do and now we had to work at getting up the trail. We went up the trail puffing away until I found some tall grass where I declared a rest area, so we stopped to enjoy the view.

We were sitting in this tall grass, which was one of the few places that the poison oak wasn’t too thick.

We sat for awhile, then Ray gets up and starts exploring again, so I get up and follow him down the hill, working our way through the thick brush.

That so called short little walk sure tired us both out as we returned to the boats and got back in the water.

We took our time heading back in for the day, but we finally made it to the boat ramp, loaded our boats and went on home for the day. I had planned to do some yard work, but when I got home, a nap was all I had left in me and that was my day.

Tuesday March 17, 2015 Jenner CA.

The weather guy said it was going to be a little windy today and when I arrived at Jenner this morning, he was right. The wind was already up as I put my boat in the water and crossed over to Penny Island. The sun was out, so even with the wind, it was nice.

I pulled into the little channel on the upper end of the island and sat around for a good while warming up in the sunshine.

This pair of mallard ducks were resting on a log in the channel. They had one eye on me and didn’t move the whole time I was there.

I hadn’t made up my mind which way to go today, but with the wind, I decided not to head down to the river’s mouth as it would be windier down that way, so I headed on up the river.

These ducks went by me. They were diving for food.

I paddled on up the river in the wind, headed for Muskrat nest beach about a half mile more up the river. You can see it’s a bit windy from the waves in the water.

I was looking for a place to go ashore for a little walk. I needed a place that wasn’t too muddy and found a spot here.

Buzzard Rock

I was headed for buzzard rock which you can see in this picture, looking down towards the town of Jenner.

When I got to the top of Buzzard rock, I sat in the sun and the spot was mostly out of the wind. A good place to sit and enjoy the day, which I did. That little island down there is where Paddy’s rock is. This was the view from the top of the rock.

A  closer look at the Paddy’s rock area showing the cormorants resting on the gravel there.

My view looking up the river from the top of the rock where I sat for a couple hours just taking it easy.

From the rock, I could see the wind was picking up some more. I decided to stay on the rock for awhile, maybe the wind would die down a bit, but it didn’t, it got stronger.

Hadn’t heard a gobble all day

I had seen some turkeys in the grassy field as I drove down to Jenner this morning, but I hadn’t heard a gobble all day, even though I was listening for them.

But as I came down off the rock, I heard a gobble across the river from me, so when I got back in my boat, I paddled across the river to see if I could find the turkeys. I didn’t find any turkeys right away, but I did find these geese resting in this spot. They honked the alarm as I approached, but didn’t fly away.

I kept looking for the turkeys and finally spotted this one as it came through the willow trees. I could hear some more of them on the other side of the trees, but I didn’t see any of the others.

I was over by Paddy’s rock where the cormorants where resting.

I worked my way down the river on the south shoreline, keeping out of the wind as much as possible and went on in for the day.

When I got home all I had in me was a nap and that was my day.