Whistles and Shouts that Annoy the Seals and Me and the Wind Comes Up

Monday June 13, 2016 Jenner CA.

The wind was supposed to come up today

The weather guys said the wind was going to come up today. When I arrived in Jenner the wind was down and the sun was out for a real nice looking day.

I put my boat in the water and paddled across to Penny Island where I decided to go down to the river’s open mouth to have a look around before the wind came up.

Near the bottom end of Penny Island I ran into these geese feeding in the shallow water.

I passed by them as they went to shore and I headed across to the mouth area passing this grebe.

Headed to the open mouth area

I was headed down to the open mouth area to have a look around, just up ahead.

Seal watch people blowing whistles and shouting

I pulled into this spot just in front of the open mouth and stayed my legal distance from the harbor seals so as not to harass them and was peacefully watching away when I heard a whistle from up on the overlook. About a second before the whistle blew, some of the seals spooked, but not from me. I ignored it as I wasn’t doing anything I shouldn’t, but they were doing what they are so called trying to prevent, scaring the seals.

A few minutes later, the seals spooked again just before the whistle blew again and this time it was followed by a shout that I should get out of there away from the seals. Now I was a bit perturbed as who ever was up on the overlook blowing the whistle and shouting was annoying the seals and me. I turned my head and shouted back as quietly as I could that they were scaring the seals. At least that shut them up. I didn’t leave the area as I was a bit put out by this annoyance.

I’ve heard that the seals can’t hear the whistle they use, but what they don’t understand is the seals are aware of everything’s body language around them. So when the seal  watch people get uppity, which they usually are, it scares the seals. The people don’t even have to shout. Now the problem with the seal watch people is they are almost always uppity, not relaxed and peaceful like I am.  Actually, because I’m down kayaking the estuary almost everyday now for over eight years, the seals know me pretty well and don’t spook much unless the seal watch people are around in their uppity state.

This is were I was sitting in front of the open mouth when this incident happened.

Here’s some of the harbor seals with my ten x zoom just after the whistle blew. I was watching the turkey vultures behind them to see what they were eating but couldn’t make it out.

I stayed and the whistle didn’t blow any more.

Headed back up the river

Eventually I headed back up the river coming up on the bottom end of Penny Island.

I passed by these geese napping on the shoreline.

And this great blue heron was fishing away and flew off as I passed squawking as they do.

The white pelicans have returned

I passed by these white pelicans on the upper end of Penny Island just resting and preening.

And another group of the white pelicans on the shore.

I stopped here by Otter’s log for a spell just sitting and watching the wind start to pick up.

I continued on up to this spot I call the redwood log graveyard and sat and watched as the wind continued to pick up.

Thinking of berries

I was thinking some berries would be good to eat, so I paddled back down the river to this spot I call Swamp Rock trail head and went ashore for a little walk to look for some berries to eat.

The swamp is dry right now and most of the black berries are done, but I found enough to eat just the same.

I put my boat back in the water and went past these pelicans fishing and eating moss.

The wind was up now

By now the wind had come up to about 25 miles an hour, so I headed on in for the day and took my boat out of the water.

John and Ken get the garbage can

John who lived down there and picks up a lot of trash in the area showed up at the ramp so I shoot the bull with him a bit. He said him and Ken were able to find the brown plastic garbage can Patti had informed them about that was laying in the river up past Paddy’s rock. He said they also pulled out nine car tires that day. Good work and thanks.

Helping Charlie and his Mom

On the way home I decided to stop in and visit Charlie and his Mom in Monte Rio. Charlie always has stuff for me to do to help him out. We looked at two of his computers he was having trouble with and I helped him start the return to factory recovery on them, then went to his Mom’s house and figured out why a bunch of wall plugs weren’t working. That was an easy fix.  I just hooked up some of the wires on one of the plugs and it all started working, so everyone was happy and I left.

They finally got the new tractor belt in

I stopped at the parts place in Monte Rio to see if they had the tractor belt I ordered and was having trouble getting. They finally figured out how to order it and had it.

I continued on home for a short nap.

After that, I went outside and installed the fan belt and it fit, so that was good. I test drove the tractor around the yard to make sure it was working ok and discovered the throttle lever was drifting down, so I had a look at that and found the friction washer was broken and needed to be replaced so we need to get one of those.

The rest of the day I spent doing mostly nothing for another good day.