Featured Species:  Atlantic and Pacific Salmon

Late September means one of the most impressive fish migrations in southern Ontario, that of mature salmon and trout moving up rivers and small streams from Lakes Ontario and Huron to spawn.  Most of the fish are currently staging, milling around stream and river mouths, waiting for water temperatures to cool and a good rain upstream to send them on their way. 

Coho and Chinook Salmon from the Pacific were brought into the Great Lakes as a replacement for Lake Trout as keystone predators, after Lake Trout populations crashed as a result of over fishing and Sea Lamprey predation.  The non-native salmon have thrived in the lakes, creating a multi-million dollar sport fishery in the process.  Most Pacifics are born and raised in hatcheries and then released into streams, but there is some evidence for natural reproduction as well. 

Atlantic Salmon, on the other hand, were once the native kings of Lake Ontario, but, as a result of habitat loss and over fishing, disappeared before 1900.  Currently, there is an Atlantic Salmon reintroduction program, which is beginning to show some success in specific streams, including the Credit River.  For a small fee, you can even adopt a fish (or a school for your school)!  Or your class may want to watch the eggs hatch and fry develop right in the classroom, and then release them to native tributaries through the Lake Ontario Classroom Hatchery Program.

In the Credit, most Pacifics don’t make it upstream past the Streetsville Dam, where they are harvested for eggs and sperm (Pacifics die after spawning).  Other species moving through the fish ladder there include Atlantic Salmon, Brown Trout and Steelhead, a lake resident, river-running form of Rainbow Trout.  The walk bridge in Erindale Park, Mississauga (near Dundas St. and Mississauga Rd.), is another good site to view migrating fish.  Check with a local angling club for good observation spots in your area. 

Other Happenings:

• The end of the flowering plant season is heralded by Heath Aster, a white-flowered aster with tiny leaves. It is one of our last flowering plants.  
• White-crowned Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos have joined the White-throated Sparrows under backyard feeders.  The sparrows can be hard to tell apart, as both can have white either white or tan crowns.  Look for a tuft of yellow above the eye of the White-throated, and a definite white throat patch.  Some Juncos may spend all or part of the winter in southern Ontario.
• Osprey are departing on migration, and will overfly resident populations in the southern U.S. to winter in Central and South America.
• Northern Canada Geese are beginning to overfly southern Ontario, usually in V’s or skeins moving south or southeast high in the sky.  Local Giant Canada Geese, a subspecies, are flocking and moving around, but will not leave unless and until local freeze up. 
• Eastern Chipmunks, Eastern Gray Squirrels, Red Squirrels, and Groundhogs are still busy eating, and in the case of the first three, storing, food.  Only the Groundhog is a true hibernator, and will stuff its face until fall frosts kill the plants it eats.  It will then waddle into its burrow and sleep until March (or February, if you believe the weather guys). 
• A few Spring Peepers and Gray Treefrogs may be calling from wetlands during the day.  These are typically first-year males, and they may be responding to similar day/night patterns as in the spring. 
• Woolly Bear caterpillars are on the move, among the last caterpillars (along with Yellow Bear and American Dagger Moth) to be out and about.  They will over winter under bark, rocks or logs.  A narrow middle band is supposed to foretell a mild winter.  Find some and make a prediction!
• This part of the month brings the fall equinox, the time when day equals night.  This year, it occurs on Tuesday, the 22^nd.  The exact time that the sun appears to cross the equator is 5:18 P.M. EDT.