Salmon

I know that I planned to show cross stitch today but we had an adventure very unique to the area that I want to share. Salmon is a big deal up here. A lot is being done to conserve their habitat. Around this time each year, they can be seen swimming upstream to lay their eggs. There are many many streams that eventually end up in the sound. The amazing thing is, they return to the same stream in which they were hatched in order to lay their own eggs. I have absolutely no idea how they know which stream to travel up to lay their eggs. This is a very difficult thing for them to do at the end of their lives. Basically, they lay eggs then die. The smell is pretty bad as you can see the dead fish lying around. However, to see them swimming against the current in such fast moving water is truly amazing!

The water is rushing toward you in this photo. The salmon have to go upstream through this culvert.

I tried to show how fast the water is running in this picture. This is fresh water that flows into Puget Sound , a salt water body. The fish begin to die as they reach the fresh water.

This was a good close up of a salmon.

If you look carefully, you can see several.

This guy was dying. It was still breathing when we took this picture.

This lovely little duck , a female hooded merganser was very busy eating things in the stream.

Our best guess, after consulting our Puget Sound Bird Book, is that this is the female hooded Merganser.

Tomorrow we are decorating the lighthouse for the holiday house tour that will feature the lighthouse. I'll try to get some good pictures. Hope you enjoyed learning about the travels of one of our most tasty fish!!