Kokanee Salmon, Sockeye in Disguise

Oncorhynchus nerka 

Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde?

It all started with a simple "wow" at one of the kokanee spawning channels.
A crystal-clear creek, full of red fish, emerald flora all around - WOW! Photos came first, questions followed later. I knew that they were called "landlocked salmon" and that they were good to eat. I also knew that they were silver for the most of their lives and that they turned red only before they started to spawn which was about in August.
That was it.
It wasn't until Richard said: "Kokanee are Sockeye, you know? Let kokanee go downstream and into the ocean and they'll come back as Sockeye Salmon."
Now, how could that be possible? One is either a kokanee or a sockeye, no? I stared at the photos of the small, slim fish with more and more questions mushrooming in my mind.

When in doubt, go to Wikipedia, then try other sites.

According to Wikipedia the name Sockeye, is the anglicized suk-kegh from one of the coastal Salishian languages (Halkomelem tribe), meaning "red fish". Kokanee came from kukeni or kekeni of the interior tribes, possibly the Sinixt of the Kootenays, meaning .... "red fish". One lives in the ocean, the other in freshwater lakes. One grows large the other is half of the other's size - if lucky. But, according to what I just learned, they are one and the same.
It became really tempting to think of the two as Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but then I thought that such a comparison would be totally unfair to the fish.

I do not have a photograph of a Sockeye Salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) yet! The above guys are kokanee (Oncorhynchus nerka). See? Their Latin names are the same.

It is well documented that each summer, the adult sockeye salmon travel back from Pacific and up through the rivers and streams to the place of their birth (in most cases) to spawn.
That is the time when many of us head outdoors to witness the migration. We do not think about the immense physiological changes that must take place so that the streamlined, ocean dwelling fish loose their silver shine and become aggressive, red-and-olive hunchbacks of the freshwater streams.
All we see is a mass of red bodies, males redder and darker with menacingly deformed jaws full of sharp, brand new teeth. Once spawning, sockeye do not eat at all, the energy they need is stored in their fat - especially in the hump on their back; their teeth are only there to help them establish the most favorable position within the spawning crowd.

It was the curved jaw that gave the taxonomists an idea to call the salmon: Oncho-rhynchus – the hooked-nose one.  

In the ocean, sockeye salmon feed upon marine zooplankton that they strain through a special apparatus incorporated within their gills. It is called gill rakers and it acts like a sieve - water that came in through the mouth is expelled out and into the ocean, through the gills. Oxygen diffuses into the gills and myriads of zooplankton are trapped in the gill rakers and swallowed soon after in one gulp. Sockeye may add some small fish or another soft-bodied creature to their diet but the main bulk of what they eat consists of those tiny creatures that the oceans are (still) teaming with. It is a diet rich in nutrients and carotenoids - red and orange pigments, whose job is to protect the tiny creatures from UV light.
That's why the sockeye flesh turns red.

Sockeye spend several years in the Pacific before heading back to the place of their birth - back from the salty ocean into freshwater rivers and lakes. They reproduce and they die in the places of their conception; a brand new generation left in their wake.

Feeding on freshwater plankton and invertebrates the new salmon stay in freshwater for a couple more years before the set on a journey back to the vast spaces of the ocean.
But what happens when something blocks the waterways so badle that the fish cannot get through?
What will happen to the young sockeye then?

Here comes the part that makes me admire the sockeye the most.

^{They will “simply” stay put  and keep on living in the lake of their youth, feed by flushing lake water through their gill rakers, catch a soft-bodied insect here and there and try to make the best out of life. Their colours will remain the same,  silver or red, only their sizes and life spans will differ because there is a huge difference in the amounts of  food available to those living in the wide ocean as opposed to those eking a living in a cool but quite sterile} mountain lake. 

Sockeye will become Kokanee.

When the time comes and their hormones kick in, the silver "landlocked"  kokanee fish will stop feeding, turn crimson red, their heads will re-colour and re-shape and they will undergo the ancient ritual of migrating to the edges of their lake or to adjacent streams. There they will spawn and die without ever experiencing the ocean life.

I found a neat table that helped me answer a few questions: Here is an excerpt.

COMMON              COMMON                MAX                    MAX                   LIFESPAN

LENGTH                  WEIGHT                  LENGTH               WEIGHT

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

SOCKEYE                 60 cm                                                       85cm                      7.5 kg                       8 years

KOKANEE              20-25 cm                  0.15 kg                  60 cm                      4.5 kg                       4 years

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

So, from here on, I will only think of the slim, landlocked  KOKANEE, the red fish of 

the West Kootenays  (and most of North America).

The Kootenays with their dammed rivers and large lakes are “kokanee country”. Many places around here are called kokanee this and kokanee that …. Kokanee Park, Kokanee Glacier, Kokanee Beer … Red Fish Creek and Red Fish Elementary amongst the others.

I wonder if anyone in the designer world will ever come up with  kokanee red. Someone take a notice please – it is an amazingly deep and rich colour. After all – we do have wasabi green!

West Kootenays could be defined by two major river systems: Columbia River with Arrow Lakes and Monashee Mountains towards the West,  Selkirk Mountains in the middle and Kootenay River with Kootenay Lake  between the Selkirks and  Purcell Mountains in the East. Both rivers have been heavily dammed and kokanee made their permanent homes in the two lakes.

^{Arrow and Kootenay lakes are deep, rocky bodies of cold water with insufficient plant life that could in turn support zooplankton that the kokanee feed on. 
Which means that kokanee food supply can become problematic at times, especially when there is a population explosion of the species.} It is all a bit more complicated than this (thanks to the dams on both ends of the lakes and poor flow of nutrients within the systems but lets not be too technical here). Little zooplankton = less kokanee = less food for fish that prey on kokanee (Gerard Trout, Rainbow Trout) .... the entire system is broken. Just another example why we should stop believing that to exploit and mess up Nature is our God given right.

Kootenay Lake, one of the largest lakes in British Columbia with Selkirk mountains on the right.

Arrow Lake by Burton near Nakusp. Monashee Mountains in the background.

 It was here, at Arrow Lake, just after sunset on August 28th, when I noticed significant splashing by the edge of the lake. There were fish; chasing each other, leaping out of water and acting crazy to say the least.
At first I thought that they were kokanee (correct) practicing for their spawn in a nearby creek (wrong).
Only later did I learn that there are two kinds of spawning kokanee: some spawn by the edge of a lake while others enter the adjacent streams.
I was lucky enough to come upon a spawn in the lake.

To record the lake spawn was difficult because the water in the pool was deep and all I could see disturbances of otherwise calm surface followed by a wild jump here and a there. I had no idea where the fish would emerge so I aimed at a general area of action, focused, set the camera on manual, and holding the cable release, waited (and waited and waited) for the fish in “my” area to jump. Needles to say that they were jumping everywhere else but!  Since the sun was setting down somewhere behind the mountain I did not have much time left . Finally one kokanee took pity on me! It shot out of the water, and (within a second or two), splashed back in.

The shutter went crazy and the image of that brave little kokanee will stay etched in my memory forever.

I repeated the same process the following evening – the lake was quiet, its surface like the proverbial glass. At sunset the water started to boil! The fish went berserk. 

Greedy to get a picture I worked hard, not noticing that a couple of local residents came over to pay me a visit. Strangely, they did not seem too friendly at first. 

“So …. what are you taking pictures of?’, they asked grudgingly.

I realized that my long lens seemed to be aiming at their homes nestled in the green privacy of the woods by the shore.

“Feesh.” I peeped.

“Fish?”

At that moment a kokanee jumped right in my field of view but I was too distracted  to press the shutter. That got me going!

“Yes! Fish! They are getting ready to spawn – right there!” (And I missed the shot! Because of you!)

They sensed my disappointment, wished me good evening and left. Until this day I think that they did not believe me. Maybe they thought that I was trying to put their house on Google Earth. And I wonder if they knew that some kokanee can spawn right there, in the lake.

So there are 2 kinds of  kokanee: "The Lakers" and "The Creekers". The names are my invention to help me remember the fact. And they are more fun than some scientific terms - if any exist.

To observe "the creekers" you need to find a nice, clean creek with just about the right temperature and the  right flow of water (too strong will flush the eggs down the stream and too still will not give them enough oxygen). It should be lined by nice gravel (not too big because it would squish the eggs and not too small because the eggs could not be hidden).

One such creek on Arrow Lake near Burton  is McDonald Creek, a well known site where one can observe the fish.


The photos below were taken at a different site.
They are Kokanee Creek and the Kokanee Creek spawning channel on Kootenay Lake by Nelson.

Everything in Nature is connected and many creatures depend on spawning salmon. Animal, plant and other worlds all benefit from the spawning event and many drift in as soon as the fish come near shores. They will feed and distribute the bodies of the dead and dying fish, for kokanee, like all salmon, die after the spawn. Someone at Kokanee creek channel asked me a question:

"Are you knowledgeable?"

"It depends. Knowledgeable about what?"

"Do kokanee spawn more than once? Someone said they do ..."

"Hmm, I don't think so but I am never sure of anything ... "

So I asked Richard. 

"Kokanee are salmon. They can live up to 4 years but once they spawn they die. Trout are different, they can spawn two or three times."

Thanks Rich.

The Others

They come for the feast. They fly, swim, walk or crawl. They will take the fish and carry it away. They will eat some and leave some for the trees, They will take the rotting bodies apart until the nutrients get back to the system. Nature wastes nothing.

While the world around them is observing or searching for their eggs and flesh, kokanee procreate.

Females are on a lookout for some suitable part of the creek where they can release their eggs (roe). When they find the place they wiggle their bodies sideways and flap their tails to dig a shallow depression; it is a "nest" called the redd. Males keep on fighting for a position nearby. The fights can be quite nasty - we observed the fish to bite their opponents with their large teeth, the opponent shaking its body violently to get free of the hold. Ouch!

When the work is done the female chooses her partner, releases part of her eggs, and at the same time the male fertilizes them with his sperm (milt). It all takes a couple of seconds followed by a few tail flaps to cover the eggs and the female is off . She will build build another redd in another location and choose a different partner. There will be three or maybe four redds built and fertilized before all of her the eggs are released.
Within a week of making the last redd the spawned fish, male and female alike, will be dead.

One cycle of  life will have ended.
Another cycle will begin.

The eggs will "hatch" and after several stages the little kokanee will swim - fast and under the cover of darkness - into their lake. There they will feed and grow and after three, four years they will return to the place of their conception - be it the edge of a lake or a mountain stream.

Would they change into a sockeye given a chance to migrate into the ocean? Some say yes.
I am at awe at the concept - but I am not knowledgeable enough to confirm. Although, I know now that they, the kokanee, can spawn only, only, once.

Metallic Blue, Spreading Dogbane and a Handsome Moth.

Milkweed Beetles, Spreading Dogbane and a Handsome Moth.

One year ago I came upon a large field of pretty plants with bright green foliage and clusters of gentle white and pink bells. Upon closer examination I discovered hundreds, if not thousands, of tiny metallic-blue beetles crawling over their soft leaves and over the reddish stems. Here and there were droplets of white sap oozing from the plants tissues. The plants were interesting but my attention was drawn to the oval cobalt blue jewels.  They were Milkweed Leaf Beetles  (Chrysochus cobaltinus ) . They were in serious mating mood, the females trying to attract the best of the best, the males trying to outfight and outsmart each other for the right to procreate. Those who made it still clutched their females for quite a while after the fact, apparently making sure that their precious sperm cells had enough time to reach the eggs inside. The females of this species are polyandrous and if another suitor managed to deliver his cargo too soon after the first one, his cells could outrace the previous ones and pass the second guy’s genes to the next generation.

Obviously, it is not easy to be a beetle these days.

Those who did not mate resorted to grazing, what else? Any time my lens got too close to the beetles, single or tandem, they would simply drop to the shaded ground, their metallic shine disappearing with the lack of light. Shiny-blue rain of tiny armoured bodies.

When handled, these beetles were anything but cute – they stank, and though I did not try, they were probably quite unpalatable (to birds and other predators as well). The reason? Most likely their diet since both, larvae and adults feed on the sap laden foliage. Apparently the milkweed beetles lay their eggs on the leaves of this remarkable plant. Caterpillars consume the leaf tissues to a great extend and later pupate in the soil underneath. Yucky tasting in every stage! Who could think of better protection.

I had so much fun with these beetles that I totally forgot about the rest of their environment. Only at home – far away from the place where I took my photos, I realized that I paid no attention to the pretty plants.

  

The herbaceous perennial occupied by the Milkweed Leaf Beetles that day goes by a sinister but well deserved name - Spreading Dogbane (Apocynum androsaemifolium). Its delicate white and pink flowers appear in June and last until about September.

Do not be fooled by the outer appearance though. Dogbane produces nasty toxins that might not bother the beetles or other invertebrates; on the contrary, it is beneficial to the insects by providing them with nasty taste that protects them from being eaten by birds and small mammals. (What in this relationship is there for the plant - if anything - is beyond me.)

No such luck for mammals! 

Dogbane sap is a powerful cocktail of glycosides that can cause cardiac arrest, respiratory, kidney and other problems in browsing animals and livestock. What a great protection against being eaten by the big guys! 

Spreading Dogbane used to be used by Native peoples for a variety of medical treatments – needless to say that in our times such activities should be left to research and medical profession since Dogbane could cause serious sickness and death in humans. Even touching the plant could make skin to blister although most people do not react to it this way.

The sap had been used to kill unwanted dogs and other animals. Thus the common name.

It has also been used for other than medicinal purposes. Just like Flax , Spreading Dogbane and its relatives posses long and strong fibers that could be used to make rope, fishing nets or even thread and cloth. Check out YouTube if you want to learn how.

While I was learning all this about Spreading Dogbane a hairy but beautiful caterpillar made its way into my world. It was the end of August when I found it one early morning, hiding underneath a juicy sunflower leaf in our yard. Soon after there were more and my ID search revealed a possibility that this could be the baby stage of a handsome Dogbane Tiger Moth. - Cycnia tenera.

The Dogbane Moth's caterpillars feed at night, preferably on Dogbane but also on other species that contain milky sap such as milkweed (Asclepias spp.). plenty of that around here.
No bright colours needed when active at night? I wonder what this guy looks like under the black light....?

The adults fly at night but also during the day and they are not known to be well liked by the birds. They too, might be using the toxic sap for protection. Who ever said that the insects are simple creatures?

Although this guy managed to escape we found two more crawling about the garden today.

They are now being fed in a makeshift terrarium – just wondering if we can have them pupate and see the adults come out at the end.

That would be the ultimate moment of truth and a future story to share.

September:

The caterpillars made their cocoons: their spiky hair was used to build a house inside of which the metamorphosis takes place. It is an amazing rebuilding process where everything gets re-arranged and at the end an adult, a creature with totally different shape, needs and purpose comes out. I am imagining it to be a milky white moth but I am not sure at all. Only hoping that one day I will be able to post its image too.

Meanwhile I will keep on scratching my head in wonder; how can so many miraculous events happen in the amazing living world?

Triteleia - What's in the Name?

Of Plants, Magical Spears and Frogs.

It was the end of May, when I stumbled upon what looks like a long abandoned Sinixt summer camp.What made me to park the car and go exploring the rocky outcrop above Kootenay River were bunches of dark-blue blossoms, happily nodding from a steep bluff. I climbed up, photographed them, post-processed the pictures in Photoshop (I always shoot in the RAW format) and began to look for their common and scientific names.
Little did I know!
The pretty blue flowers made me change into a detective, historian and a theologian at the same time. By the time I finished the identification I learned about a whole range of unrelated topics.

I had no leads so I started to snoop in my Illustrated Guide to 2000 Plants and Animals. It had been published by Reader's Digest about a kadzillion years ago - in 1985 - and it is called North American Wildlife. As I just discovered it is still available, updated. A great resource indeed. They have done an amazing job and I use this book as a first line when narrowing down my findings. I am extremely visual and it is the fastest way for me to match my photo with an illustration.
A name that jumped out from the book was kind of strange: Ithuriel's Spear - Brodiaea laxa. A strange name considering that the whole plant looks more like a bazooka than a spear. Let the modern research begin!

My Internet connection fired, I typed in the common name. Well, the first thing I found was that there was (is, I suppose) an angel called Ithuriel. I grew up in a different time and regime, so there was no Sunday school for me. Ithuriel posses a magic spear that can detect deceit. Wouldn't that be a handy thing to have! Perhaps there would be no economic crisis at the beginning of the third millenium. Where is the angel when we need him? Her? It could be flying around Wall Stret and around the rest of the world, touching people here and there, singing "Show me your true colours, tadada daa da." 
Sorry, could not resist ....

Ithuriel became famous for exposing Satan who happened to be sneaking about in Paradise. The story goes somewhat like this: One day, Satan, the Fallen Angel, got some kinky ideas and wanted to sell them to Eve. He  squatted down by her pink ear disguised as a toad. Pretty hard to do if you are a toad but maybe Eve was lying in the grass or something. He was just about to start whispering when Ithuriel noticed that things were not completely right. Maybe the toads were supposed to be in another part of Paradise or it was a wrong season, we don't know. Ithuriel knew. He dashed over and smacked the toad with the magic spear. No more marketing! Poof! The toad turned into his proper form - Satan - shrieked and flew away. Phew!

If you doubt this story, have a look at John Milton's Paradise Lost. It is a lengthy epic poem (just in case that you are like me and forgetting your high school education). It was written in 17th century and it might really, really talk to you. I am quite serious. Or, it might not.

Why they chose a toad to be a bad creature is beyond me – they are very helpful  (maybe that’s why). 

They are also endangered and disappearing because of us.

Western Toad - Bufo boreas

OK, Ithuriel has been solved. As for the spear and the plant, things did not add up. The bunch of blue blossoms looked like anything but a spear!
What were they smoking before wondering into the woods, I thought. So I took another avenue and typed in the the Latin name. Brodiaea. Whatever that means.
Bingo!

Bingo? Not really. Someone has re-named the plant to Triteleia. Why?
Bingo anyway.

Detective me, I was getting close .... really close!

Well, was it Brodiea duglasii or Brodiea laxa? Is it Triteleia laxa or Triteleia grandiflora?  Where did they come from with all these names?
No matter what the name was - all of them, save the White Hyacinth, gave matching descriptions to the plant I found in the woods.

Finally, I summarized as follows:
A perennial that grows from small scaly corms on a single stem that is up to about a half meter tall, and whose bell-shaped flowers are presenting many shades of catchy blue (from dark to light), and whose leaves are like long thin daggers growing straight from the base and not attached to the flower stem and that, as far as I know, has been called all of the below: 

White Hyacinth, 

Ithuriel’s Spear, 

Gophernuts (hmm), 

Brodiaea, 

Douglas' Brodiaea  

scientifically previously Brodiaea douglasii or Broadiea laxa  

and presently Triteleia grandiflora or Triteleia laxa.

and probably many more

Come on guys, make up your minds! 

Further research uncovered that these plants bloom mostly in shades of blue BUT some can be white therefore White Hyacinth, the description that could not be further away from the appearance of what I found.

The plant stem comes out from a corm - and underground part, that is about 2 cm wide - would that warrant Gophernuts or is it the fact that the corms can be eaten (raw or cooked)? The starchy corms played important role in people's diet,  especially during the early spring when all the nutrients still rested inside the corm. Perhaps that's why such a profusion of these plants at the old camp.
Speaking of corms, why did I not take a photo of the corm? I did not think of it, that's why. I guess that I am just like the most other people, I fail to dig deep down to have a thorough look at the whole thing. Instead, I just have a quick look and say: "Wow! A pretty blue flower on a tall stem."
I am tempted to promise to fix this approach and start digging - but as I also found out, this plant is becoming scarce in nature (same of which applies to the toad in the above photo). If every photographer, gardener and nature enthusiast started to dig ....?

It might be a good idea to get a good book instead. Something like Plants of The Rocky Mountains. It is written by Linda Kershaw, Andy McKinnon and Jim Pojar and published by Lone Pine Publishing. That’s where a lot of my info came from. There, on page 92, is also a nice sketch of the entire plant (Including the corm!) .

When the plant starts to shoot up in spring, it does just that: shoots up like a spear - looks like one too. So that's where Ithuriel's Spear came from. O-kay.

Further on - sometimes around year 1800 two Scottish botanists came to North American continent. They were collecting, describing, drawing, drying and ... you name it ... all kinds of plants and trees still unknown or little known to the Europeans then. What a better pat on the back than to give their names to the plants and trees. One of the explorers was James J. Brodie and the other one was David Douglas. They probably ended with "Sir" added to their names. That's where Brodiea douglasii and Douglas' Brodiea come from.

Have YOU had enough? I am not finished!

We have all those wonderful names. So can you tell me why we needed to re-name the plant to Triteleia?
Someone liked Greek language better than the peoples' last names. Tri = 3, teleios = perfect. Perfect threes. Check it out, everything is in threes. Why did Mr. Brodie fall out of botanical dichotomous favour, I did not find.

Just in case that you are not asleep and still keen to go on and you are wondering about "laxa", that refers to the "loose" blossoms dangling on the long stem. Laxa should be easy to remember.
And grandiflora sound like large-flowered doesn't it? Is Triteleia laxa and Triteleia grandiflora the same plant? My plant? I do not know that.

And, unlike you, I have had enough!

Next time, let us get a good dichotomous key. It might save a lot of time.
On the other hand - would I have learned all this?

In any case, wherever these pretty plants grow and bloom, their vivid blue is sure to catch the eye's attention
They are a welcome sign of spring and early summer and they are definitely worth a photograph or two. Well, ninety seven in my case.

Supermoon

On Super-Moon, Heavenly Bodies & Getting Old

In Nature, there is no such thing as a perfect circle. 

Therefore the orbits of the planets and their moons are elliptical rather than round. That means that our Moon is sometimes closer, sometimes further away from the Earth. When the moon is at its closest distance to the Earth and it is full at the same time it seems much larger and brighter than at other times. It becomes a super-moon.

It was May the 5th when my friend Nel called me on the phone:

"Watch the moon tonight - it is going to be really big 'cause it's the closest to the Earth it can get! Lets hope that it does not rain because our next chance to experience something like this will be in 2029."

Hm, I would be 80 years old then, and who knows, the skies might be cloudy that night, so I decided that it was the best to prepare my gear and photograph it NOW, in 2012.

The moon in this West Kootenay valley was supposed to rise at about 11 p.m. 

I was out and ready at eight! Waiting, praying for a cloudless night, trying to imagine what it must be like in the Prairies. Huge Prairie Moon rising above the unobstructed horizon, its super-size multiplied by the atmosphere, looking so huge as if  wanting to swallow the Earth. 

Here I was instead, at the bottom of a deep V-shaped valley on the shores of Kootenay River with tall mountain ridges reaching high for the darkening sky. The moon would be half way up before I could see any of it. It did not matter to the kid inside me, wanting to check out the 400 mm lens on the heavenly super-body.

Just no clouds, please, no clouds – okay?

There are times when wishes come true. There was not a cloud in the sky, not at eight, not at nine, not at thirty past ten! At ten forty a small portion of the Eastern sky lit up! Slowly at first but then the moon popped up, and with increasing impatience (so it seemed ), rapidly rose above the ridge. The fields and forests, the river and everything around just lit up gaining a different dimension.

The fairy tale night  began!

   SuperMoon

Several decades ago, on July 20, 1969 my brother Stan and I lazed around a small fire on a lonely beach somewhere in Italy watching a bright full moon. The news of that day was huge: “Apollo landed on the Moon! ” The world was celebrating, radio and TV stations endlessly discussing the achievements and future possibilities of the space programs. Man conquered the Moon!

Somehow I did not share that excitement; I felt a wave of sadness as if something sacred had been taken away from me. It felt as if someone walked across a field covered by freshly fallen snow.

“ No longer a virgin”, I remember saying. Stan only nodded his head.

…..

All the memories, 43 years old, came back while I was taking dozens of pictures of the rising moon. Click-click-click …. boy, was it ever rising fast!

No, no, no no no! – (that was my brain) – it is not the moon, it is the Earth and you – spinning in the opposite direction, silly!

What would happen if Earth suddenly stopped spinning – would I land on the moon?

Ah, full moon is known to do strange things to human brain. And this was Super-Moon.

     Star Trails and Polaris

Satellites above my head kept crisscrossing the skies; there was one, there – another one! No big deal, simply more of the space pollution, I thought.

Not so some fifty years ago when Stan, ever the scientist, came running into our parents’ house, grabbed me by the arm and dragged me out into the darkness of the night.

“Hurry, hurry! There is a satellite in the sky! lets see ….” It was only an optical illusion but we both pretended that we REALLY, REALLY saw one.

Half a century later a brand new “star” lights our night every now and then. Only a few people ever bother to lift their heads to have a look. 

"Ah, …  yes, the Space Station. of course. I wonder what’ they are having for dinner up there tonight."

     Space Station

So much has changed in such a short time. Sometimes I wonder: how can one begin to tell a modern Fairy Tale? Perhaps it could go like this:

Once upon a time, fifty, sixty long years ago there reigned Chaos. No man-made objects orbited the Earth. There were no human tracks on the Moon, no satellites, no lasers, no cell phones, no Internet …”

A seven year old would cringe in horror: 

“What?  How about people? How were they able to survive? What was it like for them? “

To tell the truth, I am not sure if I could explain to a seven year old that it was beautiful.

Oh that super-moon!

Gerrard Trout and Black Bears

WEST KOOTENAY MAGIC

Today I had an opportunity to share most of the day with a friend and a realy good wildlife photographer Jim Lawrence 

www.kootenayreflections.com

What a treat! 

We traveled North from Kaslo and Meadow Creek to the head of Lardeau River  looking for opportunities to photograph wildlife. Our main objective however was to see the spawning Gerrard Trout. These giants spawn from late April to mid-May.

The day was hot and sunny and it seemed that most of the wild animals took refuge in the deep woods of the Goat River Provincial Park. 

At 8:30 we saw 4 Turkey Vultures (Cathartes aura) circling the morning skies above Meadow Creek. 

We continued North towards Trout Lake. The road was unpaved and potholes, at many places, were quite deep . Winter has left its marks and our Honda Fit had a few challenging sections to conquer. Nevertheless, the vistas and Nature, budding  all around us, more than made up for the road troubles. 

Weather forecast for the day called for 32 degrees Celsius!

Beavers dammed a portion of the valley and we stopped to have a closer look at their lodge. Jim found a snake hiding among the alder roots by the edge of the swamp.  

It was 10 a.m. when we arrived to the head of Lardeau River.  It is a beautiful and wild stream, connecting two large lakes: Trout Lake to the North and Kootenay Lake to the South.

People were already watching spawning fish from the bridge that connects the West side of the valley with what used to be a mining community called Gerrard. That's where the name came from - Gerrard rainbow Trout  (Oncorhynchus spp.)

     Trout Lake at Gerrard

Unlike the many streams and rivers along the way Lardeau River was clear and turqoise in colour. There was no silt , mud and other debris being hurtled down from the rapidly warming slopes. 

Gerrard trout are very large - perhaps the largest rainbow trout in the world. Unlike the other rainbows they feed exclusively on Kokanee Salmon (land-locked Sockeye Salmon)

which makes them vulnerable to any problems bequeathing the Kokanee population.

In late spring they spawn - for a very good reason - in this clean, gravel-lined river, just after it had left Trout Lake.  Like dark, streamlined torpedoes they come up in large numbers to spawn.

We had been told that the Gerrard count for this year is somewhere around seven hundred  to a thousand spawning fish. 

Not so high, I thought, considering how many lakes and rivers we have around here. 

I guess that there used to be less, that's why everyone is happy about the numbers.

Watching Gerrads is fun. The males chase each other and once in a while there is a flurry of activity as the males chase away their rivals trying to position themselves in the close proximity of the spawning females.

Once in a while they also jump out of the water - landing with a loud splash. 

One of the local biologists told us that the explanation for such behaviour is unclear. Some people believe that the fish suffer from a skin condition caused by a fungus of sorts. They jump out of the water to seek relief from itching or pain. 

Others believe that this is a part of their mating ritual .... as for myself, I simply think that it is amazing to see a huge fish like that flying through the air in a shower of sparkling droplets.

On our return to Meadow Creak we stopped at an old-growth Red Cedar forest site.

The trees that were spared logging, hundreds years old, clad in moss and ferns, devil's club sprouting at their bases, towered high above us. 

An ideal habitat  for grizzly bears and other wildlife. 

"An owl", said Jim at one point, listening carefully. 

"I think it is a Barred Owl, can you hear?" 

Being half deaf I heard nothing. But it was good to know that the owls were there.

Soon came another sound; this one even I could hear - it was quite loud, like someone half choking was trying to clear their throat. 

"What's that?" I said. "Should we run for the car?" 

I wasn't too serious, but I was listening carefully nevertheless.

"A deer," smiled Jim, "probably scared of something."

"Something, like ... what?"

"Us." 

Leaving Jim at his home and his studio full of amazing photographs, I continued towards my own home. It was only about 5 p.m., so instead of driving along Kootenay Lake from Kaslo to Nelson, I took a road crossing Selkirk mountains from Kaslo to New Denver. I stopped at Fish Lake to enjoy the scenery, hoping to take a photograph or two. But everything was quiet - a couple of ducks too far away and rapidly falling dusk ahead. New Denver Glacier towering above everything else was changing colours as if wanting to remind me that I was still good 200 km away from home.

Light was disappearing fast as I was heading down to the valley bottom. 

Than, just when the last light hit the mountain slopes, I finally came upon a view I was hoping for all day: a mother Black Bear and her cub!

I came to a slow stop and shut off the engine.

They pretended not to see me but the cub slowly turned and walked towards the mother. She also turned - heading in my direction. I did not move, only my camera

made few annoying "clicks". A cannon could not have sounded louder!

Nobody was watching anyone! 

Then she must have given another instruction to her cub for it turned, quite suddenly, and sped towards the thickets. 

Mom did not even lift her head - only the hair on her neck stood up.

As soon as the cub reached the trees Mom turned back and followed - as if to make sure that everything back there was fine.

Finally - having enough of my presence she spun back and headed towards my car.

Charged.

I managed to take off in time and sped away, Honda Fit unscratched! 

Perhaps it was only a bluff charge - in any case, I thought that it was a perfect time to leave them alone. 

I am pretty sure that she could not have agreed with me more.