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Tuesday, June 5, 2007
No More Herring
The herring run appears to be over. It was nice while it lasted, but that seemed very short indeed. It looked at a peak
over the weekend, especially during town day. The photographs I took in the blog entry were from that morning, I believe.
Still, the lake and river are quite beautiful. Here's a nice, quiet moment from this morning.
Sunday, June 3, 2007
Happy Anniversary, Arlington!
This weekend was Town Day in Arlington, Massachusetts. There were street parties, performers, fireworks - the whole nine yards. This year is the town's bicentennial (200 years) so they really went nuts. Check out these fireworks:
OK, so I wasn't actually out at the pond watching. I was in the top floor of my house with the window open and the screen
out. By holding the camera steady against the window frame, I could get a few steady shots.
The next night, a very creepy moon came out briefly...
The Annual Mystic River Herring Run
Around this time every year, huge numbers of Atlantic Shad make their way into local rivers around the Boston area trying to find a nice, cool, quiet stream to spawn in. They have absolutely no fear, it would seem, during this time, as they race around in a futile quest to propogate
the species. The quest ends about a half-mile later, after they've crossed the Lower Mystic Lake and encountered the dam. Of course, I have some pictures...
These fish are about a foot long and are everywhere. Alex and I went to the lake a few days ago and he didn't really
pick up on it so much. But you could scoop them up with a net if you wanted to.
Later in the day, I went down to the bank of the river (a few blocks from my house) just to see what was going on. The
fish were trying to jump the rip-rap on the side of the bank.
By the way, just to my left in the water, by the base of the bridge I was next to, there was a decent school
of large carp milling about. Carp are really amazing fish. Any anglers who are used to going far to find decent fishing should give carp
a try. They are one of the strongest fighting freshwater fish, there is no pressure on them as a species, and they are everywhere
including urban environments.
Anyway, the sun came out, reflected off the water, lit up under the bridge and I sat quietly and enjoyed
the moment with splashing fish and chirping birds as my backdrop.
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