Thursday September 12, 2013, Jenner, CA.
Most of the critters were either fishing or just sitting around
Most of the time you can guess what I’m doing during the day, but you can’t guess what happens during that day. Kayaking the river is different each day, there are no two days the same. If you think there are two days the same, you aren’t paying attention to what’s going on, with the weather, the river, the ocean and all the critters, birds and fish.
I arrived at Jenner just after eleven AM.
Today was a bit on the foggy side as shown in the picture below, as I paddled past the east end of Penny island headed up the river a bit. The wind was down to a breeze and it was fairly nice out.
As I went past the east end of Penny Island there were some seagulls in the water hunting for little two inch baby crabs. This one seems to have one. They have to throw them around and break them up to get them down.
This seagull has caught a little crab and so far has knocked it’s legs off and almost has it ready to swallow.
I paddled on up the river to eagle’s landing and sat around for awhile, just watching. Nothing real exciting happening, but it was pleasant and relaxing.
After awhile I headed on back down the river. When I got to the east end of Penny Island again, this great blue heron landed right near me on an old redwood log.
I think this one may be a female as it has pink patches on it’s wing edges, which I think may be one of the female markers?
Just past that, I ran into a snowy egret fishing near the shore line. I watched it fish for awhile and then continued down the back channel of Penny Island.
There was a fog haze most everywhere and most of the critters were just taking it easy.
As I passed the west end of Penny Island, there were some harbor seals resting on a submerged redwood log.
This is the view of the west end of Penny Island as I passed by the seals as I headed toward the river mouth. Lots of birds resting on the shore of the island.
It was just coming off low tide as I sat just inside the river’s mouth in the foam. The foam comes in off the ocean as the salt water comes into the river’s mouth.. Sometimes it has nice patterns in it, like today. The Pacific ocean was real rough and making a lot of noise as it pounded the sandy beaches.
The river is always nice and peaceful compared to the Pacific ocean, which is lots of times just raging. I stay in the river for this reason.
After awhile I paddled back up the river and took this picture just as I passed the west end of Penny island of lots of birds resting there. Seagulls, a white pelican and cormorants and terns, mostly.
From there I took my time paddling up the north side of the island, just taking it easy and slowly making my way to the visitor’s center take out. It was just three PM when I took my boat out and went on home for a nap.