I chose this date to paddle the Petaluma River for the first time in my life as there was a Halloween event to be held on the river later in the day. It, together with a similar Witch Paddle in Half Moon Bay, were widely advertised on the Facebook SUP page that I frequently visited as an anonymous user, since I’ve been “officially” off Facebook for more than 5 years now (it took up all of my waking hours when I was actively using it).
I arrived at the Weller St boat launch to find that there were no docks. A nice man sitting in his truck told me that they were dredging the river, and the only public dock access to the river are by the Petaluma Float House in the shopping plaza parking lot (literally a few steps from Weller St), and by the Petaluma Yacht Club just across the river. I drove to the next door plaza parking lot, went down to check out the dock, asked the first person I saw at the dock if it was truly publicly accessible, to which he affirmed positively. It turned out that he was going to launch his kayak from here, but had to drive back to his home for some short errands before he could come back and paddle out to the marina by the Sheraton just past Hwy 101. I asked him some general questions about the river and Shollenberger Park, which was my intended destination for the day before turning back to watch the Halloween parade. He gave me some general tips about wind condition (usually comes up in the afternoon, no surprise there) and to look at the flags on two tall buildings in town for the wind direction (generally SW winds). According to him, the wind could get very strong and he had paddled in place once or twice before when coming back to the dock after a paddling session.
The paddle to Shollenberger Park was truly uneventful. I saw a couple of turkey vultures and some great egrets, together with a couple of kayakers (including the man whom I spoke to) who passed by me even though they started after me. In my defense I had put on my river fin instead of the bigger touring fin for this paddle, and that just made my board to not track well at all. I had to change my paddling side after every 4-5 strokes or so, and this slowed me down significantly. But to be frank, even if I had my touring fin on, I don’t think I’d be able to catch up to kayakers anyway. Perhaps it’s my paddling technique, or perhaps an even longer fin than my touring fin is in order here =D
When I got near the drawbridge past Hwy 101, the man I spoke to earlier was paddling at the entrance to the marina near the Sheraton, and he pointed to an empty park just ahead and told me that was Shollenberger Park. I thanked him for this and continued on my way, passing by two separate groups of fishermen gathering along the north bank. I also got to see a couple of great egrets, but there was nothing out of the ordinary in this area. Originally I had hoped that I’d be able to photograph some wildlife near the park, but there was just no much going on at the time that I was there.
But then things got more interesting. When I was on my way back, I paddled by a dock with a gull and a couple of smaller birds on it. I looked more carefully at them and realized that these were the same type of birds I ran into on the Bair Island hike last weekend. They’re called Greater Yellowlegs, or at least that’s what my Merlin App told me. There are also Lesser Yellowlegs, which are smaller overall, and those do overlap in habitat range with these Greater ones. Since I haven’t seen a Lesser type yet, I don’t know if Merlin could have mistakenly identified these birds as Greater or not. Anyhow, it was time to paddle on.
But just as I was turning around, I heard some commotion and there was a big bird behind me landing on the shore near what was the entrance of McNear Channel. I slowly paddled towards it, then raised my camera to take a picture or two, then slowly approached it again, then raised my camera and snapped another shot or two. By the time I tried to sneak even closer to it for the third time, the bird flapped its wings and flew away.
Continuing on with my paddle, I got to a tree with two flocks of birds on it, one of 7-8 turkey vultures and another of 8-10 double-crested cormorants perching near the top. Since it was only shortly after 1pm, and the parade was not taking place until 2pm, I spent my next 20-30 at this spot taking pictures of the two groups of birds. Two of the turkey vultures were spreading their wings and continued to do so for a couple of minutes, while the rest seemed to be either preening or being half-asleep. After a while one of the turkey vultures flew away and that seemed to encourage the others to also follow its lead, so that only the cormorants remained on the tree. Then I saw a couple of SUPers in Halloween costumes paddling toward me, and they were soon joined by another one. But shortly afterward, they all turned around and began to paddle back. I checked my time again and realized that the parade will begin in 20 minutes or so. Heading back now should give me enough time to get some pictures before the parade started.
But before I was able to get back to the Float House to photograph the parade, I saw this Snowy Egret on a dock very close to where the turkey vultures and cormorants were perching on. With this little guy, on this trip I had managed to see three types of egrets and herons: Great Egrets, Snowy Egrets, and Great Blue Herons. I think I’m only missing a Black-Crowned Night Heron to round out the list of most often spotted egrets/herons in the SF Bay Area =)
Then as I was approaching the D St. bridge, I began to see some wizards and witches appearing on the river. And by the time I got back near the dock, it was a full festival happening on the water….
With that, I ended my day on the Petaluma River and headed next door to Grocery Outlet for some snack shopping, then went home to get a much needed rest. It’s getting colder and colder by the day here in the SF Bay Area, so any week could be my last one for this season. Plus I’d leave the area in mid-December, so it’ll be a while before I’d get to paddle again and write up my weekend water adventures. In any case, I’ll think more about where to go next week, if I decide to go that is.
