This is not a good year for sockeye salmon at the Ballard locks, but
still July has the most fish visible during the year. This morning there
were a few dozen sockeye, one or two chinook and five or six atlantic
salmon escapees. (The atlantic salmon tend to be smaller than our local
chinook, the local ones at least, and they look beat up from being
raised in concrete pens, the dorsal and caudal fins are rough and
sometimes missing. The spots are less-round than our local coho and
chinook and the atlantic salmon have spots on their gill plates, ours
don't. That was what I learned today, plus learning where the
caudal-peduncle is.) If you've never been to the fish ladder this is a
good time to go. I won't post directions so feel free to ask if you
want.

There were thousands of herring (That's what I was told they were) in
the large lock and other areas, maybe hundreds of thousands if not
millions, the sheer numbers were boggling. About a hundred GW Gulls were
circling and feasting over the spillway area, that was pretty cool, but
other than a heard Kingfisher and "tons" of geese, there's a real dearth
of birds around there, but early summer is often like that. I think the
Bonapartes, Mews and Common Terns should show up pretty soon.

Cliff Drake
Ballard Seattle WA. 98107