Monday November 16, 2015 Monte Rio CA.
Root canal guy
I started out the day by going to see a root canal guy. He did my tooth through the crown and saved the tooth which was mostly painless, except for paying for it. :O) I think he did a good job, but only time will tell.
Paddling Monte Rio
From his office, I drove on down to Monte Rio and put my boat in the water about 1PM. The weather guys said it was going to be Windy down at Jenner today, so I thought Monte Rio would be a good choice as there is a lot less wind in the Monte Rio area, than down at Jenner.
The wind was down and the sun was out as I paddled on down the river. Some fall colors too.
Villa Grande pool
I pulled into this corner at Villa Grande and sat for awhile, before continuing on down the river.
Sun in my eyes
The sun was mostly in my face as I paddled along, which also made picture taking interesting.
I’m paddling along the shoreline here just above Sheridan beach which is that gravel off to the right.
I stopped to see if I could get a decent picture of this cormorant, as I was shooting into the sun.
Cool Breeze
I was in this area paddling on down river when I got hit by a cool breeze blowing up the river, so I decided that was far enough and started to paddle back up the river. Within a hundred yards, that breeze turned warm, so I turned back down the river and headed to the Moscow pool, down about as far as you can see.
Rein’s beach
The breeze died down and the water went flat as I paddled into the Moscow pool area, also known as Rein’s beach.
Black crowned night herons
I was paddling around the edges of the area looking for wild life when I remembered there is a spot that the Black Crowned Night Herons liked to sit in during the day, so I paddled over near that area and sure enough, there were about six of the birds resting up in the trees.
A black crowned night heron.
And another one of these herons, checking me out, keeping a close eye on me.
By now, the river was flat with almost no wind. I started back up the river at a slow pace.
The sun was going down as it was almost five PM as I came up on the Villa Grande pool here. The sun is reflecting off a window in a house and mirrored in the water along with all the big trees.
Something is up
About a half mile below Monte Rio I saw this great blue heron sitting over in the weeds and was about to paddle on by, but wait, something is up.
I paddled over closer to the great blue heron. It was fishing with some other critters and would hop to keep up with them as they hunted, so as to try and get some fish.
River otters
The other critters the heron was fishing with were river otters, about four of them.
Eating crawfish and little fish
The otters were fishing in the weeds and catching crawdads and small fish and doing quite well. They knew I was there, but were real busy fishing and eating and didn’t spook and take off. Here’s a couple of the otters just as they surfaced to devour what they caught. Otters have to surface to eat as compared to seals that can eat underwater.
This one is just swallowing a crawfish, right in front of my boat. That blurry green thing on the left bottom.
The otter’s continued to fish on down the river. I left them at it as I continued to paddle on up the river going by this egret that had found it’s perch in a tree for the night.
The sun was going down as I pulled into the boat ramp at Monte Rio just about five PM.
I put my boat on my car and drove on home and that was about it for the day.
Love your eye for the wildlife.
I didn’t know those black crown night herons.
What’s the floating weed called? It seems invasive but I love the way each strand has a leaf shaped like a rosebud.
The black crowned heron are usually in the same place, but you need to keep an eye up in the trees as sometimes they just sit up there and check you out as you pass by.
And yes, that green weed is considered invasive,…………..But. It provides a lot of food and cover for critters in the river. More stuff lives and feeds in those weeds than most anywhere else in the river as far as I can tell. it also has real long roots which look like they’d be real good for water filtration too. And the plant provides a real nice green on the river and when it blooms it has lots of nice yellow flowers. Despite what others may think, I think this plant is a good thing for the river as most of it’s other cover has been removed over the years. The name I can never remember. I think it was something like linquardia.
“Ludwegia,” I think….
That’s it.
Thanks