Humming Birds

9-26-09

The river was over 5 feet and a watered down coffee color.  It had stormed upstream, so the river was rising, even though it was sunny off Walnut Grove.  The water was down compared to last week so that the lake canals were not floatable.  The small sand bar was mostly under water except for odd looking logs with sand trapped between them.  They formed a small island, map name walnut point, about three feet across.  The big sand bar, Kirby point, was above water and full of small sand dunes.  The clay formations were under water and caused rapids in the flowing river.  I could hear a hawk scream but only caught glimpses of it.  There were also small green humming birds flitting about in the big willow tree.  The weather was sunny with clouds.  There was another paddler in a long single scull who put out right after I did.  I didn't see where he went, but I suppose he was down river. There were also several plovers that I don't usually see on this part of the river