Tuesday January 7, 2014 Jenner CA.
A gorgeous day at the river
When I arrived at Jenner today, it was cloudy, not too cold and the water was flat. No one else was on the water but me as I put my boat in at the launch ramp. It was low tide as I paddled across to Penny Island and on up to Otter’s log. It was so calm and the water so flat, I didn’t have to pull into my normal spots to get out of the weather. I just stopped in the open water whenever I felt like it and took a little break and watched for things.
I paddled up to eagle’s landing and sat for a bit. These geese were honking across the river from me.
After awhile I paddled over to Paddy’s rock. As I was headed over there the geese took off.
Here they are flying over Paddy’s rock, headed up the river.
I hung around the Paddy’s rock area for quite a while. Just before I was getting ready to leave and head back down the river I saw this white thing in the trees across the river from me so went over to check it out. Looks to me like a red tailed hawk.
It got nervous with me in the area and flew on off and I headed on down the river.
I stopped at otter’s log for awhile. The photo is of the spot I stopped looking back down to the town of Jenner.
The sun was breaking though the clouds, making it a real nice day.
Seals on the hunt
I was going past this shallow spot just on the east end of Penny Island, when a big wake approached me coming up the river.
Here’s a picture of the wake coming up towards me. Two seals seemed to be chasing a big fish. The big fish was in shallow water and the seals where in a little deeper water paralleling the fish, just waiting until the big fish ran out of shallow water to strike. They went on by me out of sight.
This one seal stopped for a moment to give me this look, then took off after the fish again.
I continued on down the river, around the north side of Penny Island headed for the river’s mouth area.
As I was going by this shallow spot on the north side of Penny Island a big fish, likely a steelhead made a big wake getting out of my way, but was too fast for a picture.
As I continued, I heard the noise of the guys working on the road above me. They are drilling holes to stabilize the road to keep it from slipping.
The river’s mouth is open
I continued on down to the river’s mouth. I saw some foam so went over and sat in it for a while. I like to sit in the foam as the fact that it is piled up there means the water is still, so I can sit in one place for a bit without drifting around.
Here I am looking out the open river’s mouth.
As you can see the river’s mouth is wide open, enough for steelhead to come in and they were coming in too, even if they can’t be seen.
As I sat this little grebe paddled by me.
Lots of harbor seal and sea lion hunting today
The sea lions and seals were actively hunting in the area, but I didn’t see any big fish being eaten while I was down there.
Eventually I headed on in for the day. This is the view as I headed on in, looking back towards the west.
I got to the boat ramp and got out of my boat and all of a sudden there was a lot of racket right near me. Some harbor seals were after steelhead by the shore.
There was a quite a commotion with several passes of the seals into the shallow area to try to catch the big fish. I think the fish got away, but am not sure.
A very nice day kayaking Jenner.