Spawners at Irving Bridge

By January 5, 2012Uncategorized

Hi Folks,
I just got back from the creek and saw 6 spawners all in the vicinity of Irving Bridge.

DOWNSTREAM of the bridge, there’s a female on a redd at the second riffle. This is the riffle that is just downstream of the large boulder on the far bank.

UPSTREAM of the bridge, there was a female working a redd close to the near bank. You’ll see it from behind the bathroom building. I watched a jack nose up behind her and attempt to nestle himself in beside her, but she was having none of it. She turned and thrashed him away, even chasing him downstream. I’ve often seen that with females and big males, not so much with jacks. There’s a theory that coho females aren’t disturbed by jack behavior the way they can be by large males, but evidently she disagreed.

Further upstream, at the very end of the paved area, if you stand on the paved part just in front of the 5 short upright wooden posts and look across to the far bank, there’s another redd with a female and two males on it this afternoon. One of the males is smallish, the same size as the female, and the other is larger but worn, with white fungus on his dorsal fin and back. It was a joy to see them lined up behind her.

All the redds are marked with orange and yellow flags. They’re hard to miss. There are now 4 or 5 redds between the entrance to Taylor Park and the beginning of North Creek Trail.

Good luck out there, Megan