Kokanee Salmon

The National Days Calendar our friends gave us earlier in the year has a whole bunch listed for September 26, 2020. There's National Pancake Day, National Singles Day, Public Lands Day, Hunting and Fishing Day, Family Health and Fitness Day USA to name a few.

So for celebrating Jr. made us chocolate chip pancakes before we all set out for a drive with our water bottles and little packets of singles flavoring. Originally we thought about heading to a public land but we thought that it might be too crowded since it was free entrance that day. Like his brother before him, Jr. Jr. recently got a national parks pass so we can go to public lands as a family anytime for free for a year. We decided instead to go to Jordanelle Reservoir to the Rock Cliff Recreation area where we hoped it would be less crowded. We didn't go to the fish trap at Strawberry Reservoir to see kokanee salmon this year (and they're not doing salmon viewing events this year) so we thought we'd try this place which I recently read was a good place to see them.

 

There were boardwalks to walk around on to get our exercise in (health and fitness) and there were indeed some salmon in the river where we could see them from the bridge we stopped at (hunting and fishing). There were also trout swimming along to snatch up the eggs deposited by the spawning salmon for a nice meal. We learned about this because while we were there on that uncrowded bridge, along came a couple of volunteers from DNR to check on things in the recreation area since there had been flooding in the Spring and because it was kokanee spawning time. They were very friendly and very happy to tell us things about the salmon and about the area. It was very informative and they were great to answer our questions. 

Nichole was great to get pictures of the salmon.

At one point, Jr. fell down so I offered to give him a piggy back ride. He's not as small as he used to be. I thought it would be funny to give him a piggy back ride since he's taller than me now. I can still lift him.

"Will you marry me?"

If you look really closely in the background of these pictures, there is a great blue heron sitting in a tree. Nichole took pictures of the heron while I took pictures of Lucky.

We had a good time. Love that family bonding.

We are Birders

Sometimes people will ask me, "What have you been doing lately?"  I tell them, "Birding."  They don't quite hear it the first time.  I have to repeat myself.  Finally I say, "Bird watching."  "Oh, bird watching."  Then they get it.  To me, birding is different than bird watching.  I explain it to people this way.  Bird watching is going out looking at birds.  Birding is driving down the road, seeing a bird, and turning the vehicle around so you can get another look at the bird.
The other day, Jeremy, the two littlest, and I went out searching for a rare bird, one not often seen in Utah- the Eastern bluebird.  Other birders had told us where they were and Jeremy had gone a few days before to see them.  We had to go down a bit of a hill to get to the trail to walk along to find them.  When Jeremy went before, there was snow on the hill.  When we went, the snow had melted so it was a hill of mud.  Jeremy held Lucky's hand through the mud, but Jr. Jr. would not set foot in it.  To make a long story short, I gave Jr. Jr. a piggy back ride all the way down the muddy hill to the paved trail.
The bluebirds were not in the spot Jeremy found them before, but we did find them a little bit farther down the trail.  Hooray!  There was a male and female and they were beautiful. 

It was worth it, especially since we had to hike back up that hill in the mud again- Jeremy helping Lucky up, and I giving Jr. Jr. a piggy back ride. 

When we got back to the van, Jeremy, Lucky, and I found a snow bank to kick to get some of the mud off our shoes and we had a towel in the van to wipe our feet because this is what our boots looked like when we got up that hill.

It's a good thing Jr. Jr. didn't get his boots muddy because by the time we got home, it was time for him to go to school.  No time to clean his clothes.
As I was washing muddy pants and socks, and later, as I was scrubbing boots, I again thought it was worth it.
And that is why we are birders.