Eagles Back In Town

admin October 21, 2020October 20, 2020 eagles, salmon

salmon in the river — While hard to capture on film, several adult salmon are using this rock bar crossing to make nests for their precious eggs. The males are close by waiting for their opportunity to fertilize the eggs.

After seeing the roiling forms of spawning salmon at the crossings this past week, we have started to notice the Bald Eagles coming back in force. The Eagles depend on the fall spawning season to supplement their diets.

The large carcasses of the spent salmon are now littering the banks from where Eagles and coyotes have dragged them out of the water for consumption. It is a smelly and messy end to the lives of the salmon that began several years ago.

Eagle in top of tall fir tree The mature salmon that we are seeing today began their life cycle right here in the Nehalem River. From Trout Unlimited Stream Explorers:

Salmon have a lifespan of three to eight years. Salmon are a kind of “super fish” that can live in both fresh water and salt water, and might travel hundreds or even thousands of miles over a lifetime! Salmon are born in fresh water and most live their adult lives in the ocean. Then they make an incredible upstream journey to spawn (lay eggs) in the same places that they were hatched.

We are seeing the Bald Eagles in the tall fir trees guarding the river as quiet sentinels between their feeding times. The distinctive squawk that sounds like a rusty hinge of a kitchen cabinet can be heard as they communicate in chatter-speak to other Eagles, their high pitched whistles echo across the farm as they soar high overhead letting all know that the salmon are back in town.

I did have a question recently about if we are the end of the line for the spawning area…Even though my mile or so of river front is a hot bed (spawning pun intended) of salmon nesting and fertilizing, we are not the end. Salmon have been seen above Timber, 10 miles to the west and also up Robinson Creek above the headwater with the Nehalem. But a lot of those spawning areas depend on Mother Nature, there are many years when there is simply not enough water flowing to support large fish even in the deeper pools. Somehow, the salmon figure out a way to persevere and continue to come to their end of their life cycle in our area.

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