A Mother's Love

Two weeks ago, several of us from the SRA carefully placed 63 salmon in two spots on the Sackville River. These were about 2-3 pounds each so they were a couple of years old. We had to transport them in a truck and then have them fished out of their tanks and ferried one or two at a time in a rubber sleeve to the river itself. Kind of like a relay race.

Last week we put 80,000 salmon fry all over the watershed in about a dozen brooks and streams. They were only about an inch or two long, having just exhausted their nutrition from their yolk sacs. This time a truck with one tank came with us. In the tank were several square shaped buckets with the babies in them. The driver would scoop out a bunch and put them in another bucket for us to carry to the stream and we’d let them go. Lots of fun.



We’ve had almost a month of rain in Nova Scotia. If it wasn’t pouring it was drizzly. And damp. And cold. That didn’t keep me from walking or hiking, but it did make it near impossible for me to take the bike out. Normally the weather won’t prevent me from biking, but I just couldn’t do it this time. The rain stopped today, we saw the sun for the first time in weeks and tomorrow should be all right as well, so the tires are filled with air (I pumped it myself) and I’m ready for a 4 k ride to start.

With the wet weather, the bugs have held off, too. Except for those blasted red lily beetles that enjoy my ornamental lilies. The moths have begun to emerge and the bees are flitting around like they’re on speed. Not on speed was this critter. Snails are kind of gross, but still fascinating. Sooooooooooooo slow…………..and with two sets of thingies sticking out of their head they look pretty alien. The longer tentacles have eyes on them, the shorter ones are for sensory activites, like smelling and feeling.



For some reason I seem to come across animal poop in all forms and places. Today was no exception. The snail proceeded to poop before my eyes. Looking up more info on these things, I discovered that when a snail lays eggs in the ground it covers them with dirt, mucous, and then POOP. A mother’s love, eh?



S.