Walk to Buzzard Rock Where There is another Turkey Vulture Nest

Monday April 13, 2015 Jenner CA.

Windy day

The wind was  already up when I put my boat in the water at Jenner this morning. I paddled across the river to the little channel at the upper end of Penny Island and pulled in out of the wind to decide which way to go, up or down river. channel

 

Winds picking up some more

As I sat there in my boat, the wind picked up some more so I decided to not go down to the river’s mouth as I thought there would be less wind up river, so I headed on up that way.

I paddled out of the little channel and looked up the river here. I thought there was less wind up that way, so I headed on out.river

 

Osprey action

Just past eagle’s landing, an osprey dove into the water right in front of me and missed it’s fish. Then it flew around in a circle a couple times and landed in the tree right over my head.osprety2

 

Walked up to Buzzard Rock

I continued on up the river to muskrat nest beach and sat for awhile, thinking I might walk up to Buzzard rock, just above me and sit and watch for an hour or two.

That’s Buzzard rock just in front of my boat, up on the hillside. It’s named Buzzard rock because turkey vultures are seen sunning on top of it from time to time.buzzardrock

 

I pulled my boat ashore here and tied it up to make sure it would be there when I got back.boat

 

Trilliums

There’s a lot of new spring growth and I went by these white flowers which I think are some kind of trilliums.trilleriem

 

There’s also a lot of nettles growing fast and one got me in the wrist as I was walking up through the brush. Ouch.

Here’s the view from the top of Buzzard Rock, looking down river to the town of Jenner.jenner

 

Looks like I’ve located another Turkey vultures nest

As I got to the top of the rock I looked over the side to see if the turkey vulture I had seen here before would fly up from the area just below the rock. I tossed a couple small rocks over the side to see if the vulture would appear.

Sure enough, it flew out of the rocks in the brush below and flew off, just to right center of this photo. I have the spot pin pointed now.nest

 

That means there is another turkey vulture nest up here in addition to the one I discovered last year in a rock about three hundred yards from this rock further up the hill. It’s also possible the vultures are born at this spot and move to the other spot later, so I’ll have to watch and see what develops.

Paddy’s rock

I could see some birds flying around down by Paddy’s rock.paddlysrock

 

And across the river, the cattle were grazing and some birds were feeding on the grasses in the field.cattle

 

There goes an otter

While I was looking down at the river just below me, I saw a big otter swim by heading towards my boat and I was wondering if it would mess up my boat and the gear I left in it. I’ve seen them mess with people’s boats that are left at docks along the river.

It went into the trees and out of sight, so I wouldn’t know until I got back to my boat.

Headed back

I sat up there for a couple hours. I could see the wind was up nicely as I headed on back to my boat.

I got back in my boat and started heading back down the river. Oh,……. no otter messes in my boat.

Terns fishing away

I heard the cry’s of terns up in the air and looked up to see three of them fishing around in front of me. Here’s one of them. they dive out of the air and into the water to catch small fish.tern

 

Did you spot?

The wind was pretty strong so I stayed along the river’s edge and worked my way back down the river. I stopped here to take a picture of the town of Jenner.jenner2

 

Did you see these two merganser ducks in the above photo?mergansers

 

And did you see this turtle on the log? Turtles are a rarity down here in the estuary as I think they don’t like salt water much. I saw this one on the same log a couple weeks ago.turtle

 

The wind was blowing good now with white caps on the waves. It was stirring up the mud on the bottom of the river making the water brown.

I took a picture here then put my camera away and crossed the river to the boat ramp on the other side. windy

 

I went on home and puttered around in the yard for the rest of the day.

Nice day.

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