These may be the most plentiful fish caught for sport in Kootenay Lake.
That is just a speculation as I am neither fisherman nor ichthyologist. Nevertheless, small children wading in the shallows catch copious quantities in buckets and fishermen collect them for bait.
When a child, I called all of these tiny fish, minnows. Yet, many of these show signs of parr marks, which suggests that some of these are the fry of salmonoid species.
Six months ago I posted merganser planing. It showed pictures of swimming Common Mergansers that had moved from displacement mode to planing mode.
Most things moving across the surface of water do so in displacement mode: they are moving so slowly across the water that weight is supported (primarily) by buoyancy (static pressure). This applies equally to kayaks and supertankers, muskrats and moose. Some boats and some birds are capable of planing: they are moving so quickly across the water that weight is (primarily) supported by the lift provided by the rush of water against a sloping bottom (dynamic pressure). Planing is not an easy trick to pull off; to achieve it takes more power than most animals can muster. Yet, some can do it.
Planing boats have: A broad flattish bottom (against which the rushing water provides lift); A hard chine (which helps directional stability and disperses spray; Paramount is an immersed transom with a sharp transition to the hull (required for the separation of the flow from the boat).
Being able to plane requires more than just power; it also requires the boat or bird to have the right shape. Boat designers have known this for a century. The crucial shape that allows a boat to plane is an immersed transom joined to the bottom of the hull at about a right-angle. This allows the water underneath to sweep out past the stern and separate easily from the boat rather than flowing up the transom as it would with the longitudinally rounded stern long favoured by rowboats and ducks.
A Common Merganser swims in displacement mode. Her tail is up and her stern is rounded. (2013/06/06)
A boat designer, who read my posting about merganser planing, wrote me to emphasize the point that planing absolutely requires an immersed and sharp transition between hull and transom. He then suggest that birds are incapable of planing because birds have rounded butts. I understood his point about the shape of birds, and I understood his point about the necessity of the sharp transition. Yet, I had seen birds plane. How did they manage this trick?
I waited and watched. With the coming of spring, I saw Mallard chicks planing and the light went on: the birds that do this are shape shifters. While swimming in displacement mode, the bird’s butt certainly is rounded; when it is swimming in planing mode, the tail feathers are pressed down strongly to create the necessary sharp underwater transition.
I had to wait until this week before getting a somewhat overhead view of a duck doing this. (With most side views, the duck’s wake obscures the view of the depressed tail).
A female Common Merganser is planing. Weight is supported by the lift provided by the rush of water against a sloping belly. Wings are held tight to the side to provide a hard chine. Tail feathers are forced down to give the sharp underwater transition needed for planing.
Hundreds of photographers have been working hard recently to bring images of athletic events to the world. However, one can also watch superb athletes oneself by looking outdoors. Here are two leaps seen yesterday.
A pika launches itself to the next rock. Jumping is its preferred way to move across a talus field.
A white-tailed fawn displays its eponymous tail as its leaps across the rut of a side road.
Osprey chicks are still in the nest but are now as large as adults and easy to see.
Yesterday, I had expected to go on a nest-monitoring tour to estimate this year’s chick production. Alas, the tour was rescheduled, so, I headed out on my own — not to count chicks, merely to enjoy the birds.
Here are two shots from that jaunt.
A female Osprey comes in for a landing. She is banded. I have seen her a number of times before.
A Osprey family sits on what is a new nest this season. There are three chicks (the ones with speckled wings and orange eyes) and one female adult (second from the left with yellow eyes). Soon all will have migrated with the adults leaving first.
Of course, today is also the day of my Ogopogo talk.
Haretage minuets: This posting offers insincere apologies to the Canadian series, Heritage Minutes.
I know that snowshoe hares are out there, but I rarely see them. It turns out I have been looking in the wrong places.
“I really like a good salad.”
“When asked to pose, I try to look my spiffy best.”
In late August, there is, what is called, a Toadfest at Summit Lake Park, southeast of Nakusp. The public gathers to help western toadlets cross the highway during their migration from lakeshore to uplands.
The problem of vehicles squishing thousands of toadlets as they cross a highway does not seem to exist at Kokanee Creek Park. There are toadlets, but a greater separation between water and highway.
Tadpoles roam ponds near the Lake. In another ten days, migrating toadlets will delight observers.
This is the time of year to see non-resident sandpipers as they pass through our region. I already showed a Greater Yellowlegs. Here are two more seen this morning: a Solitary Sandpiper and … well, I don’t know what the second one is.
A Solitary Sandpiper looks for delectables so as to refuel before continuing its journey south.
I did not know what this bird is. After a number of visually similar sandpipers were suggested, four experts now assure me that it is a Least Sandpiper. Thank you all.
The bears keep coming. It is both the season and the year for it.
To my eye (and to my computer’s colour meter), this bear is blue.
Black Bears certainly come in a delightful range of colours around here. Compare this colour with the last bear in a tree which was distinctly chocolate.
A blue Black Bear visits.
To the list of useful devices for good wildlife photography, I may have added one more: supply your subject with a (possibly hallucinogenic) mushroom.
The Columbian Ground Squirrel is a skittish little beastie that is forever on guard and ready to vanish. So, it was unexpected that one nonchalantly allowed me to move closer and closer as I snapped pictures. When it finally had had enough of this encroachment, its departure was chaotic, heading first one way, then the other, then hiding its head in its tail. All of this was rather odd.
It was only when I looked at the pictures that I realized it had been eating a mushroom. Might this have affected its judgement?
A Columbian Ground Squirrel finishes off its mushroom in a state of some confusion.
Ogopogo talk
Ogopogo is one of my favourite animals — each sighting is a thrill.
This posting is a shameless promotion of my forthcoming presentation about Ogopogo.
Seen around BC, this relative of Nessie is always described as a large serpentine lake monster. One mustn’t be swayed by the proprietorial posturing of the Okanagan tourism industry because Ogopogo sightings in Kootenay Lake extend back over a century. Indeed, on two recent occasions it was photographed in the waters adjacent to Kokanee Creek Park.
Title: Ogopogo Gait
Speaker: Alistair Fraser
Location: Nature Centre,
Kokanee Creek Park
Date: Tues., 16 Aug. 2016
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Sponsor: Eco Society
Donation: toonie sought
It is at this park on August 16th that our favourite lake monster is featured in a presentation entitled:
Ogopogo Gait
a naturalist explains
Come and discover the leviathan that shares our waters. Learn what kind of animal is Ogopogo; Understand its seemingly erratic behaviour; Find out what are the most likely places and times for a sighting.
Along the way, this highly illustrated talk will romp over history, comparative anatomy, human perception, animal behaviour, the physics of swimming, marketing and even political posturing.
This stylized statue of Ogopogo in Kelowna has errors, but it is a passable representation of the lake monster seen around BC.
Second shameless promotion: Have Ogopogo talk, will travel.