The Log That Turned Into a Stinky Dead Seal

Friday November 16, 2018 Jenner CA.

Good day for a paddle

I checked the weather at Jenner for the day and it looked like the wind would be down so off I went.

It was hazy with some water vapor and some smoke too from the fire called Camp in California but all in all it looked real good for a nice day paddling around the estuary.

I put the boat in the water and paddled across to the island and headed on up river.

Here I’m headed up along the island.

Deer are out grazing

Right away I spotted these two deer out feeding on the island. I didn’t seem to bother them much. They just watched as I paddled on by.

At the upper end of the island I went by a bunch of ducks.

And some cormorants too.

What’s that up ahead

I worked my way slowly up the river to this spot where I was looking at something up along the shoreline. I couldn’t quite make it out. It looked like it might be a big rock that split off the shore, but I couldn’t tell from here so I headed on up to see. I’ve seen big rocks split off before down here.

Skull

This is what it turned out to be once I paddled up to it. Looks like a big skull from a stumpasorous.

When the river’s mouth closes up the water level rises and flouts all the old stumps, then the wind can blow them up the river or maybe this one came down the river.

After checking it out I turned and started back down the river.

New fence up the hill

I was sitting here when I noticed a new fence going up the hill across the river. That fence puts my little chicken fence to shame as far as building it.

Going down the back channel

I continued my paddle down the river along here and paddled into the back channel of the island on the left.

These birds just sat there as I paddled on by.

It’s not a log and stinks

I pulled in by a log on the shoreline expecting a load clunk as I bumped into the log but there was no bump sound. I pushed the  log out a bit with my paddle and looked into two black eye sockets of a dead seal. And then I got it’s smell. Yuck, I paddled away trying to avoid that film on the surface oozing from the dead seal.

A bit further on down the channel this deer was grazing in the island’s grasses which were under water a couple days ago before the river’s mouth opened up.

Lots of birds

There were a bunch of birds on the lower end of Penny Island. I needed to swing way out to the left to get around them.

Some brown pelicans where there too.

The pelican in the middle is in it’s mating plumage. The others are likely juveniles.

I continued on around the end of the island and up it’s side and crossed over to the boat ramp and went on home for the day.

Chicken grazing pen work

Once home I worked on the chicken grazing pen gates for an hour or so and fed and watered the chickens. I thought about butchering one, but decided to do that tomorrow.

That was my day for a nice one.