[LRflex] Re: IMG story: Kokanee Slamon
- From: "Ted Grant" <tedgrant@xxxxxxx>
- To: <leicareflex@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 14 Oct 2008 12:04:59 -0700
Doug Herr showed:
Subject: [LRflex] IMG story: Kokanee Slamon
Hi Doug,
A very interesting series and story explaining the life cycle.
Where we live on Vancouver Island it's only about a 15 minute drive to a
Provincial Park where we can watch and photograph this evolution very
closely every year.
Mother Nature being herself and the food chain, I find it disturbing when
you watch sea gulls pecking at the salmon as they splash about in the
shallow waters of the creek.
Or a huge bald eagle swoop down and snatch a whole salmon out of the water
and fly off with it dangling in it's talons! As often as I've seen it happen
I've yet to be fast enough to get one on the fly! :-(
Your series is interesting beyond the pictures as it illustrates to our
members in the big cities something about life in the fish world. Thanks for
the post.
Cheers,
ted
Lake Tahoe's Kokanee Salmon live their entire lives in fresh water, hatching
in tributary streams and maturing in the lake itself, returning to the
streams to spawn. This is a small salmon, about the size of a trout. Lake
Tahoe's Taylor Creek is one of the best places to witness the beginning and
end of the salmon's life cycle:
http://www.wildlightphoto.com/fish/salmon/L1110272.jpg
The salmon pair up in shallow gravelly areas, where the female excavates a
redd (a place to lay the eggs) in the stream bottom by using the suction
from the upward thrust of her tail to dislodge gravel and silt, where it is
carried away by the current. The male is brighter red; aside from
fertilizing the eggs his role is to defend the female's redd from intruders:
http://www.wildlightphoto.com/fish/salmon/L1110373.jpg
http://www.wildlightphoto.com/fish/salmon/L1110366.jpg
Among the dangers they face are the many Common Mergansers, attracted by the
fish concentrations:
http://www.wildlightphoto.com/fish/salmon/L1110265.jpg
The mergansers pursue the salmon under water and use their serrated bills to
hold the salmon before swallowing it whole:
http://www.wildlightphoto.com/fish/salmon/L1110292.jpg
http://www.wildlightphoto.com/fish/salmon/L1110261.jpg
http://www.wildlightphoto.com/fish/salmon/L1110262.jpg
However the pursuit isn't over just yet. Other mergansers are interested in
discussing rightful ownership of the meal. Apparently the salmon have
little say in the matter:
http://www.wildlightphoto.com/fish/salmon/L1110343.jpg
http://www.wildlightphoto.com/fish/salmon/L1110334.jpg
http://www.wildlightphoto.com/fish/salmon/L1110335.jpg
The most successful mergansers are those who can swallow the salmon on the
run.
Technical stuff: R8/DMR @ ISO 400, lens was either 180mm APO-Elmarit-R or
560mm f/6.8 Telyt
All comments welcome.
Doug Herr
Birdman of Sacramento
http://www.wildlightphoto.com
------
Unsubscribe or change to/from Digest Mode at:
http://www.lrflex.furnfeather.net/
Archives are at:
//www.freelists.org/archives/leicareflex/
No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com
Version: 8.0.173 / Virus Database: 270.8.0/1722 - Release Date: 10/13/2008
7:50 AM
Other related posts:
