River Paddle and Checking Buzzard Rock for a Vulture Nest

Wednesday May 12, 2021 Jenner CA.

Paddle day

I was off to kayak Jenner today around noon.

I put my boat in the water and headed up river about a mile going by these birds on the upper end of the island. They were resting and taking it easy.

And so was this harbor seal I paddled on by as it watched me.

Buzzard rock

I wanted to hike up to that big rock. There’s a vulture nest there below it that I’d like to see if it’s active or not.

But before I hiked up there I sat in this spot on the river and watched things for a bit.

I could see the horses across the river on the hillside feeding away.

Hike up the hill

I landed here in this green stuff and found the trail and started up it to the big rock. Even though the big rock isn’t far from the river it took me a couple hours to get to it as the trails are over grown and hard to find.

I spotted this salmon berry and ate it. They are just so so and not a real tasty berry even though they look real good.

Poison oak and nettles

This is the over grown trail I started up. Full of poison oak and nettles too. I carefully work my way around the needles.

The trail goes up through these ferns which I plowed on through.

Lost the trail

At one point I got to what looked like the end of the trail and couldn’t go any further and couldn’t find the trail until I finally back tracked about a hundred feet back down the trail and found it over grown and going under a big tree.

I’m almost to the big rock here but still have to work my way through the over grown trail, going down into a little ravine and back up to the rock.

Big rock view

I finally made it to the big rock and this is the view down the river.

Vulture nest not in use

And this is the view up the river. I looked down where the vulture nest is but it wasn’t being used, likely because the wild turkeys have been using this area this year.