Greets Tweets,

I was at the locks this morning when 30 + Great Blue Herons left the heronry and circled overhead in all directions. Seconds later I saw about the same number of crows mobbing what I think was a Red-tailed Hawk. The hawk and the crows went off to the east and the herons settled down. A half hour later there were seven herons on the tidal area at Meadow Point, Golden Gardens Park.

On the fish front, the smolt are still running, they have 2 year old smolt slides to help the smolt make it over the spillway. They're made by Biomark, an Idaho company. They count the number of pit tagged smolt that go through. Its kind of fun to watch the little guys pop out of the tube. The fish ladder opened again yesterday after its annual maintenance and this morning there were five nice looking Sockeye Salmon in the viewing area, Jay the interpreter said they were expecting a good run this year with some 5 year salts.* These were nice big healthy looking fish I saw today. It's interesting to compare them to the stragglers later in the run, beat up, red, big hooked kypes...

*I'm not sure I understand this correctly, but I think a five year salt spends five years in salt water before heading upstream, or are they just five years old? Three or four year salts are more common.

Cliff Drake
Ballard Seattle, WA
cliffdrake at qwest.net


PS: If anyone is still reading, I wrote a poem in honor of Ted Hughes, Dan said I could post it:


Crow
In Homage: Ted Hughes

Black:
Incorruptible:

Crow sits
and waits for the world
to revolve around its claws.

Time is on its side;
The world awaits the blink of its eye -


The plunder irresistible:
It acts!

And a life is lost.


but Crow

eats -

And lives on.