The Spawn is On

The Spawn is On At North Creek!

Yesterday, a friend of mine reminded me great a spot I have near my house to observe birds and wildlife.  It is actually a wetland and open grassy field near an office park in Canyon Park, WA through which North Creek flows. I have been here numerous time before, but lately had not had the chance. Since I had not been on this trail in quite some time, today I decided to go there for a walk along the North Creek Trail. 

To my delight during my morning stroll, I saw a ton of bird activity.  My first encounter was with a Common Yellowthroat (one of my favorite birds), which really got me excited again about my decision to walk this trail today.  As I progressed on my morning jaunt, I saw a number of birds: mallards, coots, red-winged blackbirds, fox sparrows, black-capped chickadees, spotted towhees, robins, and plenty of Oregon juncos. I walked for about 30 mins just enjoying the sites and listening for bird sounds to determine if I could recognize what types of birds I was hearing. 

Fox Sparrow

Common Yellowthroat

 As I was about to head back to my car, I decided to take a walk across a small wooden bridge which crosses North Creek, to see if I could find any animal tracks along the side of the creek. 

Wooden bridge across North Creek

 I checked a few spots I had been to before, but did not see anything I could definitively identify as a track. Just as I rounded the corner, a young man on a mountain bike came flying by me on the trail and scared the Buh-Jesis(sp?) out of me.  I think he felt bad and as he flew past called out "Hey the Pinks are back!...down there", pointing behind his bike and a little further down the trail in front of me.

North Creek Trail and Spawning Site (Red Dot on Map); Sockeye in foreground (red body)

I was really excited because I had no idea that salmon actually even ran in North Creek. You see...out here in the Pacific Northwest there are plenty of signs to remind you that little creeks are part of watersheds that support salmon in Puget Sound, but the creeks look so ordinary...just running through suburbia.

Sockeye salmon in North Creek

Sockeye salmon

Well today....to see salmon running in the little, ordinary looking North Creek was spectacular. As I got to the spot the young man pointed me toward, I saw large red bodies hanging in the running water, pointed upstream.  At first they were just holding in the fast moving water, but then as I watched for a while, I noticed them begin to move around. In some cases, it look like typical milling around salmon do around spawning beds, but in other cases there looked to be some degree of territoriality taking place.I am no salmon expert, but I did notice right away that these salmon looked more like sockeye salmon than pink salmon.  Pink salmon are nicknamed "humpies" because  the large hump males get on their back....but these fish did not have any humps. I stayed there for a while, just enjoying the payoff I got from the guy who almost ran over me with his mountain bike. I was really excited and decided to go home and get my camera to see if I could take some pics. 

When I returned to the spawning site, not only were the salmon still there, the friend who had reminded me of this place was also there.  We talked for a while, and he mentioned that he had been checking everyday to see if the salmon had returned, but today was finally the first day that they showed up. I thanked him for reminding me about this place and then I headed for home.  On my short drive home, I reflected on how spectacular nature can be...even in a small, ordinary-looking and unassuming neighborhood like mine in suburban Seattle. Geesh...I really need to get outside more.

With Thankfulness and Appreciation,

Greg (aka J.A.A.N.)