Tuesday April 8, 2014 Jenner CA.
The day started out with an egg shell
As I was paddling across the river to Penny Island I spied something white floating in the river, which had an odd shape, so I paddled over to check it out. Turned out to be a mostly empty egg shell about three and a half inches or so long. Maybe a goose egg? Or a turkey egg?
There was just a little yoke left in it. The opening looked like it was made by a bird as it was small and all but a little of the egg had been removed. I carried it across the river where I saw Ray and put it on a log to take this photo.
There are likely quite few goose nests up the river, so this could of come from just about anywhere, but I was thinking about the goose I’d been watching on Paddy’s rock. Was it from that nest. Not likely,……………………But.
The wild turkeys
Ray and I continued on up the river where we saw the turkeys across the river near Paddy’s rock grazing in the grass in the field. I took this photo of them way over there.
We decided to go for a hike to Indian rock
We continued on up the river leisurely without checking on the goose at Paddy’s rock. We had decided to go for a walk up the hill at the Indian Rock trail. We paddled on past it up to the newly named rat nest beach where we sat around for awhile, before starting back down the river to the Indian rock trail.
We carefully put to shore trying to stay out of the mud and avoiding rocks and not falling in the water. We mostly succeeded, only getting in the mud a little.
The trail starts out right up the hill and it’s a bit slippery as it’s still a bit wet from the recent rains. One has to be careful not to slip. It goes through some trees and big ferns and a lot of poison oak too. The poison oak is easy to see now that it’s leaves are all coming out for spring.
Just as we popped out the top into the grass, I spied my first wild iris.
Turned out the field was full of them as we proceeded to the rock.
The face of the old Indian Woman Rock
Here’s is Ray on top of Indian Rock. The rock is big, that grass is just growing on it. It’s quite a nice place to just enjoy, especially after climbing up the hill to it.
The view looking up the river from Indian rock to the highway one bridge.
The view looking across the river from Indian rock. That’s Paddy’s rock down there, with some cattle grazing in the grasses in the field.
Paddy’s rock
I zoomed in a bit for this one of Paddy’s rock. I thought I saw the goose on the rock from the top of Indian Rock, but couldn’t really tell for sure? The tide is low and the gravel has made a bridge to land from Paddy’s rock, which is not likely what the nesting goose had in mind when it decided to nest on the rock.
We stayed up on the rock for quite awhile before heading back down the trail. The trail goes through some interesting areas giving the ol body a good workout.
Here is Ray going through a big fern area and is just about to cross a little creek flowing down the hill. And yes, there is a trail in there among the ferns.
Headed across the river to Paddy’s rock to check out the goose
When Ray and I got to the bottom where our boats were we were tired out. We got back in our boats and headed across the river to see if the goose was on the rock.
Unfortunately, the goose was not there on the rock.
No goose, just some feathers.
There was another goose on the shore near by, which I think was it’s mate as I’d seen it on other days close by like this.
I decided to go ashore and go up on Paddy’s rock to see if there was a nest or not.
There was a nest,……. But
There was a nest alright and it had four good eggs in it, but no goose., just some down and some other feathers a goose wouldn’t want to lose.
This is where I pulled my boat ashore and there is a little pile of feathers to the left front of it, like where something tore into a goose to do it in.
So, I think something jumped the goose off it’s nest and killed it and packed it away, such as a bobcat, fox or coyote? Something killed the bird which likely flew off the nest to protect it at the last instant and was killed in the process.
I left the nest as I found it, hoping maybe the other goose will take over, but it didn’t look hopeful for this to happen?
Realistically, everything is eating or getting eaten all the time around here
Kayaking around Jenner is real enjoyable and all, but realistically most everything around you is either eating something or being eaten. One moment they are eating something and the next moment they may be getting eaten. We are lucky to be on the food chain where we are, as it’s a real nasty world out there.
I got caught up in a sorta nap
We continued on down the river and Ray went on in for the day and I was going to go down the back channel of Penny Island. I started down the channel and just pooped out and stopped paddling and let the light wind carry me back up the river and across. I just closed my eyes and kept my ears open for a sorta nap.
This is the view when I did have my eyes open as I just sat in my boat and enjoyed the day. :O)
About an hour later, I went on in and pulled my boat out of the water and went on home.
I had to work to get the car work done
I wanted to do some work on my car, but I had to nap for an hour or so first. Then a couple cups of coffee and I did the work on the car.
I adjusted this goodie on the carb or throttle body that is supposed to tell the computer when the car is at idle. It wasn’t hard to do, but had to be done like the book said.
I’ll test it out tomorrow.
After that, I just sat around in my yard enjoying the rest of the day.