Wednesday August 7, 2013 Monte Rio, CA.
I met Steve for a Monte Rio Kayak today
I was going to meet Steve in Monte Rio today to kayak down river to Moscow hole and back, but first I needed to go help a friend with some water problems in Monte Rio, mostly just questions on his spring. I did that and went on down to the Monte Rio boat ramp where Steve was already in the water, about Noon.
I put my boat in the water and we headed down the river at a leisurely pace.
This is the view we had as we headed down the river toward Villa Grande.
There were quite a few people on the river today, so we mostly kept on moving at a slow pace down the river, seeking solitude.
Just above Moscow hole a pair of female Mergansers where getting some sun and didn’t want to leave there spot as we passed on by.
This is Moscow hole or the Ryan’s beach area as we approached.
We stopped for a break sitting in our boats at Moscow hole then went on down the river just a bit more into a little channel by the island just below Ryan’s beach. There was quite a bit of wild life in the channel.
This is a Green Heron, neck retracted sitting along the trees in the channel.
Another Green Heron in the channel, neck extended.
There were a couple lesser snowy egrets preening in the trees in the channel also.
I think this is a lesser snowy egret?
We stayed in the channel for awhile as Steve tried his hand at fly fishing there with no luck.
We turned around in the channel and started working our way back up the river.
Just above Moscow hole I saw something moving in the green weeds along the shore across the river, so I headed on over to check it out. They didn’t show themselves much, but it was some river otters, fishing in the weeds, headed down the river.
This is the only decent pic I got of one of them and it’s not that decent either. 
We took our time paddling back up the river as Steve tried fishing some more. Just above Villa Grande Hole I spied this male great blue heron sitting on a log in the water.
And just above that was a snowy egret fishing in the weeds.
I didn’t see many turtles today, likely because there were a quite a few people in boats on the river today, but I did see this one, just below Monte Rio.
I think we were back in Monte Rio around six P.M. where we took our boats out of the water and went on home.
The wind was up off and on today and it was mostly clouded over. We dressed warm and had a nice day, just the same.