Feathers and Fins

Last weekend found us venturing over to the Sacramento Valley. Our first stop one of my favorites was the auto tour at Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge. The ponds on the south end of the refuge were mostly empty. They were refilling the ponds on the eastern end which led to some great flight images of the Snow Geese as well as some fun images of Great Egrets feasting on crickets and other insects trying to escape the rising waters. Among the Egrets were a flock of Whimbrels.we spotted a lot of other waterfowl as well. That evening we watched the CSU, Chico Choral Ensemble perform "Hear the Joyful Noise". It was an uplifting evening for my soul. The following day we drove up to Battle Creek near Anderson, Ca. The largest salmonid hatchery in the United states is located here. Chinook Salmon some weighing fifty pounds or more come upstream here to in an attempt to spawn. They are guided by a fish weir up a fish ladder into the hatchery. Here they are stripped of their eggs and sperm. Their bodies are used to make fish meal and fertilizer. The eggs are nurtured until they are big enough at which point they are placed in raceways of water to grow until they are big enough to be released back into Battle Creek or other places along the Sacramento River system. Our guide through the hatchery was Jane Dysert. Her photography is well worth the effort to look at and can be found on Facebook and Instagram. God's blessings upon your weekend, chris All images were created with a Canon EOS 7D MkII camera. The two lenses used were a Canon 100-400IS V.1 lens and a Tamron 150- 600mm G2 lens. #teamcanonusa, #withmytamron

Journey's End

This morning I went for a short walk along Willits Creek. I spotted two female Chinook Salmon still digging out their redds (nests) in the gravel of the creek. Though there were no male salmon in sight in which to fertilize them.There was also one nice sized dead salmon lying in the creek bottom.It's amazing to think what that salmon survived in its journey make it this far in order to spawn. The Chinook Salmon that spawn in Willits Creek typically spend three to five years or sometimes longer living in the Pacific Ocean before they head upriver to spawn.They travel south up the Eel River a distance of over 130 miles up the river. When they reach Outlet Creek they hang a right and go another 20 miles or so. Upon reaching the confluence of Willits Creek they head southwest another five miles.By the time they have reached this point in their journey they are pretty beat up and bruised from all of the rocks and rapids they have fought their way up.The females find a spot in the creek gravel that meets their liking. They turn sideways and dig a hole in the gravel in which to lay their eggs. The male then goes over the top of the nest and fertilizes the whole nest. The female then moves upstream of the nest and covers it in gravel. She will guard the nest for a few days and then all the adult salmon die.Leaving behind another generation waiting to hatch,go down river to the ocean and start the cycle all over again. The end of a long journey God's blessings to all, chris

Last of the Fall Color Blue Jays

Tonight the wind is beating against the house and a storm is pouring in off of the Pacific. It looks like we are going to be in for rain for the next three or four days. I'm looking forward to seeing the salmon spawning in the local creeks. In talking to some of my friends they are already going up many of the creeks. The rains will allow many more of them to push further up into some of the smaller waterways. This morning the storm forced me out of the photoblind and into the house. In reviewing my images from this morning I did manage to capture another Steller's Jay image to add to my collection. This will be the last Steller's with fall colors as I have far too many of them already. Today I changed all of my feeders and perches around so the fall colors won't be included in the background anymore until next year. Now if some different birds would come in! God's precious love to all, chris

Great Run of Chinook Salmon

On Friday while I was out photographing the fall colors I did a quick check on the Chinook Salmon run in the Eel River. I only watched them for about a half of an hour. I was really impressed by the number of salmon I saw spawning in the shallow riffles of the river. The females were digging reds (nests) by turning sideways and digging up the gravel by flapping their tails. There was a lot of pushing and shoving for nest sites. The males were pushing each other around to see who would get to fertilize the eggs. A beautiful sight to behold since the numbers of salmon have been down for so many years. I read recently that this may be the biggest salmon run that anyone can remember.I look forward to the creeks rising and seeing some salmon soon closer to where I live! God's love and blessings to all, chris