Sep 20 2020 - Whale of a Time

 

Have you noticed that there are leaves turning colour?  I could easily see the difference in the Sumacs between last Saturday and yesterday.  Tuesday is the official start of astronomical Autumn at 9:30am EDT.   We're in September so we're in whale season.  If we were in Australia, we'd be familiar with the whales migrating to Antarctica.  There is a "whale highway" and the drone footage is HERE. This is by far the best footage of whales that I've seen. I could go for a whale tv channel.  One of the whales referenced is a subadult.  That's what one of the not-quite-mature whales is called in the video.  A subadult:  perhaps that is something we should consider for humans more explicitly.  The definition of subadult does include humans - those who have passed through the juvenile period but not yet attained typical adult characteristics.  But then, we would have to come to agreement on adult characteritistics... Whales are migrating on the North American Pacific coast. What about the Wild Ocean Whale Society Live Stream HERE. It live streams from Powell River.  It is very dark there now at 3:10am.  We can't tell if this might be something interesting like the Australia footage. We can see the written reports - the Vancouver Island Whale Watch had the September 16th sighting of two humpback whales - mother and son.  Find out everyone's name HERE. Going further south, on September 12th, there were humpback whales  throughout Monterery Bay, ocean birds, great white stars and dolphins at the harbour mouth.  You can see HERE that there is something to watch every weekend.  One can get the app to stay up-to-date on the latest sightings of whales and dolphins.   I was looking at the Hawaii sighting map HERE.    You can set a date range and see what's been spotted.  This is sponsored by the Pacific Whale Foundation. Would you like to see one year of whale watching around the world in one infographic?  Go HERE to download the 2020 whale planner.   This is the infographic. Reaching back into the archives, we saw whales in 2012 on the ferry travelling to Seattle.

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Finding Fish in Niagara

My sister took me to Charles Daley Park which is on Lake Ontario in St. Catharines.  We watched large fish swim up and down the channel that goes to the big lagoon.  She was told they have to wait in the channel until their body temperature adapts to the changes between the cold lake and the warm lagoon.  This is the migratory period for fish coming to their spawning grounds, where they will spawn in the spring.

So there's lots of fishing in Niagara, I find out.  Most of us think of going to the Georgian Bay area to fish, and not Lake Ontario.  Part of the dilemma with Lake Ontario is the pollution levels of the past reducing the number of fish and eliminating them from the table.  However, there are some interesting species listed in the Niagara area, including Steelhead, Brown Trout, Lake Trout, Carp, Salmon (of various types - Lake and Chinook), Smallmouth Bass and Sturgeon.   There are fishing adventure companies in the Niagara Falls area, with lots of pictures of big fish.  And there is a Sturgeon repopulation project at the Niagara River.  

The Niagara River seems to have a large and diverse group - this information comes from the Greenbelt Website about fishing at the Queenston Docks.  The salmon and trout come in the fall to spawn in the spring.  So they would be resident in the big lagoon at Charles Daley Park over the winter.

WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT TO CATCH ON THE NIAGARA RIVER:

Migratory Species:

 Rainbow trout, brown trout, Chinook salmon, Coho salmon, lake trout 

Resident Species:

 pan fish, yellow perch, smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, channel catfish, northern pike, carp, muskellunge, walleye

 

Ice Fishing:

Ice Fishing is a great way to have an adventure and enjoy the out doors in the middle of winter! Look for 

yellow perch, walleye, trout, and if you're lucky - something bigger!

Here's where they are swimming to:

 Here's where they are coming from:

This is the channel:

This is the 2-3 foot fish - maybe a salmon…