High risk high reward chance of seeing a spawning steelhead in the Russian River paid off today!
My basic approach is to put on a wetsuit and mask and snorkel, run 1/2 mile up the road paralleling Maacama Creek and float back down to where it meets the Russian River looking for Steelhead. I've done this many times over the years, but timing is critical, its always around this time of year (late Feb/early March) but difficult to tell exactly when there will be fish in the Creek/River. This is the first time I've done this with a camera (gopro). And I'm so stoked I was able to take a picture of one of these mysterious visitors of the ocean in time for Fish Week!
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that is so awesome!!! congrats!
You are such a nerd! I wish I had a steelhead stream in my backyard!
ha thanks @faerthen!
Wow Scott, that's awesome! Did you time fish week for this?
Ha - no. In theory the Critter Calendar order is empirical based on the timing of past iNat observations. Not sure why it put Fish in Feb though - I was thinking of that while snorkeling, aside from steelhead the Russian River looks totally sterile this time of year, I imagine its even a grimmer proposition to find fish in many other parts of the Northern hemisphere. Maybe its driven by winter holidays to tropical beaches? http://www.inaturalist.org/observations?month=2&place_id=any&subview=grid&view=species&iconic_taxa=Actinopterygii
Yeah I think @maractwin might be behind this trend :-)
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations?iconic_taxa=Actinopterygii&month=2&place_id=any&subview=grid&view=observers
I still think February is a weird time for fish. I almost always do dive trips in April & October (i.e. swing seasons that are neither summer nor winter, in northern or southern hemispheres), and occasionally have one in Jan or Feb. Locally, I'm not getting in the water other than Jun-Sep. I'm frustrated that you are doing fish week and I won't post any observations.
yeah - orchids in December is the one I can't get my head around, but all in all I think the order is fairly sensible
Wow, fun (and cold?) .
Most of the critter calendar species so far haven't been things I was able to find in Vermont (Fish could have worked if I got a chance to go ice fishing but the ice is thin and I haven't taken that up yet). There are some summer plant ones I will get though.
Huh, orchids in December will definitely be for the Kiwis. Looks like putty root and rattlesnake plantain can be pretty reliable in eastern North America though. June, July, and August all have more orchid observations than December. How did the critter calendar algorithm work?
i may be able to find some dead epipacis helleborine stalks if that december ends up as abysmally snowless as this one. Hope not
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