Tuesday May 24, 2016 Monte Rio CA.
Paddling up from Monte Rio
Ray let me know last night that he was going to kayak above Monte Rio, so I said I’d join him if he didn’t start too early. I met him down at the Monte Rio boat ramp about ten thirty and we put our boats in the water.
Just below the Monte Rio bridge is a shallow spot which is hard to paddle through, so we went to shore on the right and walked our boats through this spot getting our feet a bit wet.
There were some big Mayfly hatches and these ducks were eating dead ones that were floating on the water. These are mallards.
This green night heron landed and started fishing right beside us at the Monte Rio beach.
We continued on up the river at a fairly slow pace, just enjoying the day.
What’s that
Ray noticed this thing on the this house but we could just barely make it out. It sorta looked like a picture of someone, but it also looked like a naked lady’s butt in a window from our view.
Once I put it on my computer and blew it up, one can get an idea of why it might have been on the outside wall, instead of in the house? :O)
We paddled up to the golf course area and sat here for a spell before continuing on.
Another female mallard duck with little ones was eating more mayflies as we watched.
Lots of turtles
This was the first of many turtles we saw out sunning today.
We were headed to the Vacation beach summer dam and bridge crossing just up the river from here.
We passed this pile of trees and started to notice all the birds and turtles in it getting some sun.
There’s a great blue heron preening and looks like it has a sore on it’s shoulder.
And the wood duck to the left.
Below them are a pair of mallard ducks and a bunch of turtles. There were a bunch more turtles to the right of the log just out of sight and some more wood ducks in there too.
Summer dam area
We left them and continued on until we make it up to the summer dam spot just ahead of us here. We stopped at this spot for a bit, then turned and headed back down the river.
Dams in June 16th
They haven’t started to install the dam or bridge yet in this spot, but they are getting ready to do it. They will prep this dam and the dam in Guerneville, but they can’t back up any water until June 16th, but they will get the summer bridge in before that.
This merganser was sneaking by us with her little ones as we drifted down the river.
And we went by this momma mallard duck with her little ones.
There were a bunch of turtles on this log as we paddled on by. We sure saw lots of turtles today, I’ve only showed you a few of them.
Eventually we drifted under the Monte Rio bridge and were headed for the boat ramp.
People are ignorant
Unfortunately there were several people and their dog sitting on the bottom of the boat ramp, not realizing they were in the way. Ray grumbled a bit, but in the end we kept our mouths quiet and just packed our boats up the ramp, still grumbling a bit.
We loaded our boats and went on home for the day.
And that was my day, for another nice one.