The Osprey and the Buzzard

One day our family and some friends were kayaking on the Sacramento River. When we had stopped and were eating lunch we heard a bird scream. We looked across the river and we saw an osprey with a huge fish! There were some turkey vultures, sometimes called buzzards, trying to steal the fish from the osprey.

 

I jumped on the back of Shannon's kayak and we went across the river to get a closer look at the birds. As we were taking pictures, the vultures flew away. The osprey stayed there eating his fish as fast as he could.

 

 

We got so close we could almost touch him. Then he flew off but the fish was so heavy it weighed him down so much he could barely make it to his log! Lucky for him the vultures didn't follow.

 

January's Kayak Trip

For our January kayak trip we decided on the the Thermalito Afterbay.  A cool and foggy day, but no wind.  We launched at the Monument Hill launch ramp.  We were hoping for more birds, but so were some of the duck hunters we saw.

Brenda & Makenna keeping warm

Coots taking off.

Ruddy Duck

Sheldon and Trista

 

All is quiet in the fog

Run!

 

 

 

 

Back to the launch.

This is a nice area to explore in the winter.  Summer time finds it full of jet skis and power boats.  We had in mostly to ourselves, just a few friendly hunters today.

Don't miss out on a wintertime paddle, they can be very enjoyable.

Wednesday

Wednesday

Wednesday

New Favorite Kayak Shirt

I got a package in the mail the other day, it was from a friend of mine.  In it I found what may become my favorite shirt for kayaking.

Do you have a favorite shirt you wear on the water?  I would love to hear about it.

Have a good weekend, hope to see you on the water.

Wednesday

Sunset on the Thermalito Forebay.

New Year's Goals.

I normally don't like New Year's resolutions.  You are just setting yourself up for failure.  With that said, I am setting a couple of kayak goals for 2011:

1.  Kayak at least once in every month of 2011.
2.  Write in this blog at least once in every month of 2011.

If I do number one, I should be able to do number two easy enough.  Come to think of it, I just took care of number two for January.  Now I have 30 days to find a paddle.

Happy paddling!

--Sheldon

Kayaking on the Oroville Afterbay.

Dry Spell

spell

(spěl) n. A short, indefinite period of time.

A dry spell is what I have been going through lately. Both kayaking and blog posts. It has been over a month since I have last been on the water. It has been much longer than that since I have added to this blog. Not that I haven't had good excuses, I have. We took a very nice long three week vacation. Before that we had weeks of getting ready for vacation. After we have been recovering from the vacation. Now with busy weekends and planned camping trips it looks like it will be a couple more weeks before the kayaks see water.

We are coming up on my favorite time of year for kayaking, Fall. The weather is cooling off, the waters are less crowded, and the colors are changing. Birds will start moving through on their way south. Cool and quiet, just the way I like it. Maybe I will even get to try out that new fly rod I bought on vacation.

Alas for now, dry spell continues. But hey, I did get a blog post done!