Wednesday, April 14
Trap Report
Today was a day of events. It seems like we just went from one event to another. The plan was to check the Siletz Falls trap and the Palmer trap. Derek was going to check Bohanan. Bill and I left the Pig House at 8:10 and headed south to get oxygen for the fish tank.
THE OSPREY- Going over the Yaquina Bay bridge Bill noticed that a pair of Osprey had begun piling up sticks to begin a nest. The problem was that their site was atop a river navigation aid. Homeland Security (U.S. Coast Guard) is charged with keeping all navigation aids clean and working so they will have to remove the beginning nest. The Osprey nest is a protected item under somebody's body of rules so this will pit one government agency against another. I wonder if they flip a coin or what.
OXYGEN - We continued south to the welding shop near the Litehouse Deli. Bill unfastened the empty tank and I packed it over to the loading dock. Bill went inside to do the paperwork. The attendant did not recognize us, the truck, ODF&W and generally acted like it was his first day. Since we were not in a position to pay for the oxygen, Bill had to talk long and hard to get the clerk to write it up and hold it till Derek came by.
We went back across the bridge, gassed up and headed for Siletz Falls. but.........
CAR WRECK - At milepost 2 on the Logsden Road a van had sheared off a power pole and the lines were sagging across the road. Apparently there were no serious injuries, the van was on it's side and they had one-way traffic under the power lines.
Bill had to do a stream survey on Buck Creek which crosses the Gorge Road near milepost 5. I dropped him off near the Siletz River and went back to the Gorge Road to wait for him. The water in Buck Creek was 44 degrees.
REDDS - Bill set the new Guinness record for redds found in that stretch or creek. He found 9 new sites and it took an hour for the survey which in the past has been a half hour.
WATER OOZLE - While I was waiting for Bill at the road I watched a water oozle hunting for insects in the stream. These unique birds "fly" under water and hunt for food.
BALD EAGLE - Bill startled a bald eagle which had been eating on an old steelhead carcass and it flew upstream and right over me. Majestic birds.
We reached the Siletz Falls trap at 11:30. Bill had brought some tools and we tightened the trolley cable so the car would not bump on the concrete pad on the south side of the river. There were 29 Steelhead in the trap.
Wild 8 male 6 female (3 were repeats)
Hatchery 9 male 6 female
The wild fish were released back down the ladder after getting a hole punched in their tail. The hatchery fish were transported back over the river and into the truck tank. The water was 42 degrees. We left at 12:28 and headed downriver, loaded.
We checked the Palmer trap. It had 1 male and 1 female hatchery Steelhead. We added them to the truck tank.
Bill pulled nearly all of the remaining boards for the smolt ponds and the majority of the remaining fish headed downstream. The water in Palmer Creek was 51 degrees. We left there at 1:30.
OLALLA RESERVOIR - We went to Olalla Reservoir and happily put 17 large Steelhead into the lake. Many people at the lake today so we had a good audience. The water was 51 degrees.
We wound our way back to Newport and arrived at the Pig House at 3:00 pm. As you can see it was a day of "events"
Wayde
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