canoe west home | quiz | canoeing instructors | Klamath River Guidebook
canoe west home | quiz | canoeing instructors | Klamath River Guidebook |
|
|
Winter Canoeing On The Sacramento River |
| One of the real
pleasures of a river trip is all the interesting things that you see as you travel along.
And those people who see the most of these interesting things are those who watch their
surroundings carefully in the belief that there will always be something to see: a deer
sleeping under the willows only a few feet from your boat, otters porpoising up a shallow
rapid, or perhaps an eagle perched quietly in a favorite tree. Recently, we were doing an easy float trip on the Sacramento River right in the middle of Redding, CA. We were having a good time admiring the great variety of birds. And even though the mood was light and the conversation flowing, we, by force of habit, kept an eye on the cover along the river. Then we saw it. On a steep bank in a tiny opening in the tangle of blackberry bushes and grapevine, stood a Bobcat. Now, I’ve seen Bobcats before, but I always get excited when I see one, especially when the cat is in the Redding city limits and not a hundred yards from the River View Country Club. Moments later we saw the second cat. It was reassuring to think that there might a family living in the limited "wild" inside a major city. I’ve always enjoyed stories about wild animals that do unexpected and sometimes amusing things. I once saw a jackrabbit run head on into the flat face of a large boulder. I’m sure that he recovered, but for a moment or two he sat stunned looking much like a cartoon rabbit with one ear up and the other hanging straight down. A friend of mine once saw a mallard hen fly directly into a waterfall. Looking back when she should have been looking forward. She survived, a bit bedraggled. I once saw a bear make an impossible ascent of a steep bank on the Klamath River, but that’s a long story told in its entirety in our book The Canoer’s Guide to the Middle Klamath River. On the same day that we saw the Bobcats on the Sacramento River we saw a hawk do an unusual thing, and while it does not really fall into the same category as the "duck in the waterfall" it was, nevertheless, interesting. There are many raptors in northern California, but one of the most beautiful is the Red Shouldered Hawk, a broad-wing bird of magnificent plumage. Our gang gets excited whenever we see any of nature’s "critters" (no matter how many times we’ve seen them before) so it was no wonder that we were pleased to see this beautiful hawk sitting high in a Cottonwood tree on the right shore. Naturally, as we neared, he flew from his perch, but not down river as we would have supposed, but up river along the shoreline. We were sure that he had some secret place where he could get away from humans and their contraptions, but, apparently, humans and their things did not seem to bother him overmuch. He flew perhaps a hundred yards just above the water in his characteristic flap-and-slide style and then executed a sharp left bank at the first river front home, glided across the lovely manicured lawn and landed on a lawn ornament a few feet from a large picture window. We were at first shocked, then delighted, and then envious. I want a Red Shouldered Hawk on my lawn. |
|
