The Sea Lions Were Hunting Today

Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2013, Jenner, CA.

Kayaking at Jenner, CA., on the Russian River

Seemed like a good day to go kayaking down at Jenner today. First, I went to the Napa parts house to pick up my new brake light switch for my van. Looked like the right part……………So, I headed down to Jenner from there.

Sunny day at Jenner.

The sun was out at Jenner, with a light cool breeze from the east. Ray’s truck was in the parking lot, but I didn’t see him anywhere in sight. I put the boat in the water and was off , across the river to Penny Island and headed up the river a bit. I ran into Ray just at the east end of the island, so we headed on up the river.

The sea lions have a big fish.

Just as we got started there was some commotion across the river from us. It appeared like a sea lion had a big fish and there was another sea lion there too, and a couple seagulls, picking up the scraps. They sea lions move so fast and only stay on the surface for an instant, so, I couldn’t get any decent pictures.

But I did get this one, below..

sealion

 

We continued up the river.

We continued up stream to almost the highway one bridge, just taking our time, enjoying the nice day. Then, turned around and worked our way back down, headed for the mouth of the river, down the back side of the island. The breeze from the east was dying down to almost calm.

A walkabout break on Penny Island.

We decided to go ashore on the east end of the island and do a bit of exploring on foot. We spent about forty five minutes on the island, looking around and walking though the berry bush trails.

Below, is where we landed on Penny Island, looking back up the river.

pennyislland

 

Down toward the river’s mouth.

After a rest on the island, we started back toward the rivers mouth again. We noticed more sea lions hunting in the river water, very active.

Below, you can see the Russian river mouth, as it goes into the ocean. Note the seals and birds resting on the sandy shore.

rivermouth

 

Seals and birds too.

Below, is another picture of the seals and birds resting on the sandy shore.

sealsmouth

 

At the river’s mouth, the sun was nice and warm and the breeze had mostly dyed, so we spent some time there just enjoying the day and watching the seals and the sea lions hunting big fish. As we were watching a sea lion surfaced in front of us and ate a small fish, but was gone before I realized what it was doing, so no pic.

Ray, takes it easy at the river’s mouth.

Below, you can see Ray, taking it easy, just inside the mouth of the river, looking back up the river.

raymouth

 

The day was getting on, so we started heading back toward the visitors center.

Lot’s of sea lions hunting for fish now.

Sea lions were hunting all around us, maybe six or so around the mouth area, it’s hard to tell. They were hunting around us all the way back to the visitors center, but we didn’t’ see them take any more fish.

Below is a picture of the river, looking west toward the ocean.

sun2

 

Another one below, I like these direct into the sun shots.

sun3

 

Almost back to the visitor’s center.

We were headed for the visitor’s center, way up on the left. It took us awhile to get there, as we were watching the sea lions hunt all around us, you never knew where they would pop up next.

visitorcenter

 

We took our boats off the water around four pm. It was a real nice winter day on the Russian River at Jenner, CA., all day long.

Had a great day.

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