Seals, Birds, Otters, the Russian River Estuary

Friday February 5, 2015 Jenner CA.

A sunny day

The sun was out and the wind was down as I pulled into Jenner this morning. I put the boat in the water and paddled across to Penny Island and decided to go on down river towards the river’s mouth.

I worked my way down along the north shore of Penny Island and stopped in this spot for a bit.

I also stopped in this spot near the lower end of Penny Island. It’s a small slot that I pull into to get out of the wind when it’s windy.

And this spot, at the lower tip of Penny Island just before pushing off and crossing over to the open mouth area down as far as you can see.

River mouth is open

I stopped here in front of the open river’s mouth for a bit. Lots of seals and birds resting on the beach and the ocean was real rough.

I paddled on past the mouth to the end of the river and sat around here.

I hung around the area for almost an hour at this spot at the end of the river and this was my view.

When I left the mouth area, I went past the open mouth one more time which looked like this.

Three river otters

As I was leaving the mouth area, I spotted these three river otters diving and fishing by the shoreline, so I paddled over to have a look.

This one popped up right in front of me and was eating a little fish before it noticed I was there.

Up the river

I watched the otters fish for awhile, then continued on up the river to the little channel on the upper end of Penny Island where I sat here for a spell just enjoying the nice day catching some sun rays.

Eventually I continued on up the river along the south shoreline and went by Eagle’s landing here.

I paddled on up to what I call the muskrat area and sat here for awhile, watching some ducks out on the water feeding.

Down the river

I looked at my watch and it was getting late in the afternoon, so I crossed over the river to the north shore at Paddy’s rock and continued on down the river looking for critters along the shoreline, going along here.