Volunteers from the Byrne Creek Streamkeepers Society began a two-day survey of fish in the creek this morning.

Lovely morning in the ravine

Please note that fish surveys are done with permission from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

Here’s a little feller hanging in a pool beneath a fallen tree.

Robin keeping an eye on things in Ron McLean Park in SE Burnaby

Byrne Creek Streamkeepers volunteers found a coho fry (newly hatched with yolk still visible) in a bug sample yesterday, so today on my creek walk I stopped at a few likely places to see if I could spot any in the water. I was happy to see three fry!

Two fry under the wooden footbridge, and I spotted another about ten meters downstream.

It was a lovely day for counting bugs on Byrne Creek in SE Burnaby today. Such aquatic invertebrate surveys provide an indication of water quality in the creek, and unfortunately while streamkeeper volunteers have been regularly sampling for over ten years, the quality is nearly always poor to marginal, with just the occasional satisfactory at best.

Using a D-net to gather a sample

Chatting with neighbourhood friends

Volunteers show up with a new generation of streamkeepers 🙂

Volunteers usually combine data collection with ongoing garbage cleanup

It’s been a warm winter!

I checked the artificial spawning habitat and sediment pond for fish, but saw only two cutthroat. No fry yet. I also found this odd black, flaking coating on the sediment pond spillway. Something yucky came down the creek not too long ago!