It was a late start to salmon spawning season on Byrne Creek in SE Burnaby, BC, this year and we have seen very few fish compared to past years. It’s a mystery that’s troubling.
We saw one chum, and several coho today. We also processed — measured and assessed spawning success — a few dead coho we found.
Unfortunately, this coho female did not spawn before dying. That’s sad to see, particularly since we’ve been getting so few salmon back the last few years.
We also saw this big coho on its last fins. It was barely moving.
NOTE: Streamkeepers have training and permission to monitor spawning salmon and collect data when the fish die. It is illegal to interfere with spawning salmon.
The carcasses are cut in half after they are assessed, to ensure we don’t double count, and are returned to the creek to provide nutrients to the ecosystem.
Photos of today’s incident in Byrne Creek in SE #Burnaby.
A volunteer streamkeeper on his way to Edmonds Skytrain Station this morning noticed the mess.
Called it in to the City, and hope they can find the source.
From Griffiths Pond near Edmonds Skytrain Station I backtracked it all the way to where the creek first appears above ground near 16th. The flow was from higher than that, and was dissipating by the time I got there.
I have not seen any distressed or dying fish, so we might have dodged a bullet, yet again. This has happened a few times over the last few months. Not good.
We have spawning salmon in the creek, and later I will check the sediment pond further downstream, though if it’s this thick down there I likely won’t be able to see anything.
Fish ladder at Griffiths Pond
Heading upstream to where the creek comes out of pipes near 16th.
We walked the dike near 72nd along Boundary Bay in Delta, BC, today, and then spent an hour or two at the North 40 Park Reserve. Lots of great “shooting” opportunities!
This shot of a Short-Eared Owl pursuing a crow is my fave of the day. Dunno if it would actually whack the crow, but it sure looks pissed off : – ).
I took several hundred shots of Northern Harriers, and these were about the only ones I’d publish : – ).
As we were sipping our coffees this morning we heard eagles. Looked out the window, and saw this pair of beauties. What a glorious way to start the day!
It’s such joy doing the Stream of Dreams watershed education program, and then coming back to a school again and expanding the education and hands-on participation to other habitat enhancement.
The kids built homes for many bird families today. Looking forward to checking out the avian uptake in the spring!
I am increasingly troubled by friends and family who are falling into the right-wing and left-wing disinformation worlds.
It’s getting scary.
Friends and family that I’ve known for decades are getting sucked in and spouting shit that a fourth-grader could see vast holes in. . . Be it “right-wing or left-wing. . .”
We have a fragile democracy here in Canada. We have tens of thousands of folks who want to come here because conditions are so crappy in their home countries. Folks who would work their butts off to ensure we have a democracy in Canada because they have experienced totalitarian evil.
China and Russia are both dictatorships. Both have decades of experience and intent in subjugating people, and destabilizing democracies.
Democracies are by nature fragile because they do accept individual thought. That is worth protecting.
People are dying in Hong Kong, people are dying in Ukraine aspiring to democratic freedoms that we take for granted here.
Learn, read, remember. . . Don’t let the bastards get you down.
I walk this trail several times a week, and these ‘shrooms were not there just a few days ago. Well there were a few, but nowhere near what was there today. I love how they can, er, mushroom seemingly out of nowhere so quickly.
