Tuesday August 12, 2014 Jenner CA.

Frolicking harbor seals, deer and brown pelicans, with a bit of working on the car too.

When I went outside this morning to leave for Jenner, it felt like it was going to rain. But as I approached Jenner to kayak, the wind was down, and the water was flat, for a real nice day kayaking in the Russian River Estuary.

White pelicans up the river

I saw some of the white pelicans fishing up the river, so I headed on up to see what they were up to.

This was how the river looked just as I left the boat ramp this morning, headed up the river. There are some white pelicans in the picture, just left of center, but, they are hard to see.

I paddled over by them. They were fishing, a little, but seemed to be headed to Paddy’s rock to rest up after a hard morning fishing.

When they got to Paddy’s rock, they all got out of the water and went to shore, where they were just doing some preening and resting. There were a few merganser ducks and cormorants already on the beach, when the pelicans arrived.

A couple weeks ago there were about a maximum of seventy five white pelicans fishing in the estuary. The numbers have dropped to about twenty of them now.

Nice paddling along the river shoreline

I left the pelicans and crossed back over to the other side of the river and paddled on up at my leisurely pace. The river sure looked nice as I paddled along.

I paddled on up to musk rat and sat for awhile enjoying the nice day at this spot, looking back down the river.

Things seemed real peaceful, not much happening as I sat and watched.

So, eventually, I started back down the river. Some birds under the overhanging trees got my attention, so I went over to see what they were. Some little buddy birds where under the trees feeding away, as they do. Little pipers. There have been a lot of these little pipers on the estuary this year, more than whatever is normal. :O)

The white pelicans were still across the river at their spot, so I paddled on by for another picture of them.

Sat at this spot headed down the river

I crossed back to the south side of the river and stopped at this spot for awhile.

Paddled into the side finger off the back channel of Penny Island

I then continued on down the back Penny island channel and went into the little side finger where the lady lives with her dog. I don’t go into this finger much as the dog usually starts barking, but it didn’t today. Maybe it wasn’t home?

Momma deer with her two fawns

Anyway, there was a momma deer there with her two fawns eating away at the grasses along the water.
They kept an eye on me, but didn’t seem to mind my presence too much.

I left the deer eating away and passed this great blue heron just as I was leaving the finger.

Frolicking harbor seals

There were a bunch of harbor seals frolicking near the west end of Penny island so I sat and watched them for a bit.

Two frolicking harbor seals.

River’s mouth is open and the high tide was coming into the estuary

It was almost high tide as I approached the river’s mouth. Water was ripping into the river from the ocean as I approached the mouth area.

These are some of the birds on the left shore as I entered the river’s mouth. Seagulls, cormorants, terns and brown pelicans.

Waiting for the slack high tide

I wanted to wait until the tide went slack and stopped ripping into the mouth. That took about a half hour, then the current wasn’t so strong, so I ventured further into the river’s mouth, but not into the ocean.

This was my view, out into the Pacific ocean, with some harbor seals resting on the beach on the river on the right, not easy to make out.

Even though the tide was mostly slack now, the waves were causing swells in the river, which I really don’ like much as I get motion sickness easily, so I left that area before I got too ill feeling. I should of left sooner. :O)

I headed on back in for the day and went on home.

Some car work at home

I had a cup of coffee, instead of a nap and then went out to find out where the engine oil leak was coming from in my car?

Darn, the oil leak is coming from somewhere under the timing belt cover, maybe the main seal?

That means I have to go into the timing belt area sometime to find and fix it, but not yet, I’ll just keep adding oil until I get time to fix that, but it’s been getting worse lately, so I won’t be able to put it off too much longer.

While I was under there, I also noticed my right front brake rotor is wearing bad with groves too, so I’ll also have to deal with that eventually. Lots of fun working on the car. :O)

I think that side needs a new brake caliper, as it was doing something similar the last time I put new shoes on it.

I worked on the great water line project too

Since it was still early, I spent some time mounting my new water faucets to some 4×4 boards for support to hold them up straight.

After that, I filled some more dirt back into the ditch, trying to take it easy on my back. I have about a quarter of it to go, then I will plant some daffodils, and put a few more inches of dirt on top of them and plant some more wild flower seeds on top of that and then the ditch will be filled up all the way with a little extra dirt to compact as it settles in.

Enjoyed the rest of the evening

After the bit of dirt moving, I ate some grapes that are starting to ripen and sat in my yard chairs enjoying the evening until it got too dark.

Turned out to be another nice day with no rain.