VIDEO, PHOTOS: Salmon watch starts at Fauntleroy Creek, hours before musical circle to welcome coho
Fauntleroy Creek volunteer Alana was cheery rather than bleary at this afternoon’s salmon-welcoming gathering, even though she’d been on the creek at daybreak, starting the annual watch for coho spawners. For the next month or so, she and other volunteers will be watching closely, including veteran watchers like Dennis Hinton:
Joining creek steward Judy Pickens and singing/drumming lead Jamie Schilling, he told those gathered today that while no salmon were in view today, three seals were seen, suggesting salmon are in the vicinity. The creek has had seasonal counts over the past decade-plus from one to more than 340, and current projections, he said, “are from really bad to really good.” So the gathering proceeded, with hopes and hearts leaping:
Children decorated a salmon sketch with stickers representing eggs, while songs of welcome reverberated around the gathering place:
Everyone was invited to write salmon poetry and step to the mic to read it
Some were inspired by the littlest participants – one said it is their child’s second fall, and hopefully first to see salmon – a status that several might also achieve:
If and when salmon show up, the Fauntleroy Watershed Council will organize an “open creek” so you can come down in hope of seeing them yourself – watch WSB for that announcement.
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