Migrating Salmon

 Thanksgiving weekend we joined our son and daughter-in-law at our favourite restaurant, the Harrison Park Inn in Owen Sound. It sits at the heart of Harrison Park itself, with the Sydenham River flowing not 200 yards away and is totally accessible.  Let me just point out that this restaurant has turkey dinners on the menu all year round.  It made a great Thanksgiving dinner!

Standing on the bridge (well I was actually sitting), we could look down and watch the salmon as they struggled upstream.  I can't tell you which species these are without having one in my hands, but there are four possibilities.

Salmon were re-introduced in the late 1950s and thereafter, initially to control the exploding population of Alewives, which they successfully did.  Chinook, Coho, Pink and Atlantic Salmon were all stocked, and have done well, though not all populations are sustainable yet.

There are four salmon in this photo, but they're not really clear in the fast current.

This is the Sydenham River where we saw the salmon, here looking downstream where the water is a little calmer and the salmon pool.

The view upstream shows a river tumbling over shallower rocks., but we saw no salmon on that side of the bridge.

Another cluster of four salmon.

Every year we enjoy visiting Harrison Park the see this miracle of nature.

Fall Colours Start to Spread

 By mid-October the red and orange colours were spreading fast in our own back yard.  With our own three fairly large Sugar Maples we're getting lots of those orange and red colours.  The different fall colours that characterize different species of trees intrigue me, but the brightest red trees I saw were right here in our own back yard.

The brightest leaves seemed to be right in front of our kitchen window.

But outside looking up one of the Sugar Maples I could see it was changing colour quickly.

I kept trying to catch photos of the best coloured leaves.

Meanwhile the canopy of that one Sugar Maple was turning red quickly.

Beyond our back yard I could see one of the two big old sugar Maples in the distance starting to turn red,

Sadly, the other big old Sugar Maple appears to have died.  All its leaves are gone, and I fear that it will come down next year.  Lots more coloured leaves to come, but first we need to go and see the salmon migrating up the Sydenham River in Owen Sound.