Sunday, November 2, 2025

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.



7 comments:

  1. How exciting to be able to watch salmon from your chair. Proper wildlife spotting. And thinking in another direction, I don’t eat fish unless I absolutely have to, and salmon is my least favourite.

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  2. I’m glad that I seen spawning salmon once.It was in BC.

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  3. ... it is a miracle of nature.
    I did enjoy your photographs.

    All the best Jan

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  4. The salmon coming out of Lake Erie into streams in northwestern Pennsylvania can't sustain their populations -- hence lots of stocking.

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  5. We lived in Grand Falls-Windsor in central Newfoundland where you could watch the salmon move through a salmon ladder on the Exploits River. Those fish are a wonder!

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  6. I would enjoy being with you as I find fish swimming fascinating. Here I get to watch suckers.

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  7. Lots of native spawning salmon here on the west coast, BC and the northwest USA. I've heard people complain about the smell of the dying fish after spawning. I love the smell of the real world! Great photos, FG, really pretty water photos.

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