Upon arrival, Casper immediately went face-down into the creek
and started muttering off the species he was seeing (I can't
decipher mutter in good times, much less when heard through a
snorkle, but Steve & Bruce seemed to have no trouble). We left
Casper happily viewing the darters and went upstream one of the
forks to try to avoid silting the snorkling area.
The fish were on to our tricks and in general headed away at the
first sign of disturbance. We saw several areas of creek that had
been used for ATV & 4-wheeling crossing, and while there saw one
4x4 get mired and throw gallons of mud & water all up the bank
while getting out - no wonder the fish are so skittish. Most netting
attempts pulls produced shiner fry and damnbus, with the
occasional darter, killi, and redbreasted sunfish.
I'll let Steve, Bruce and Casper produce the fish list The bird count
was pretty dismal, but I didn't do much serious birding. There was
no wind, so the migrating raptors were waaaaay up in the sky,
mere specs. Skyspecs sighted were 1 Merlin, 3 Redtail hawks,
and 1 unidentified buteo. Birds closer to ground level were 1
Redtail, 1 Cooper's Hawks, 3 Turkey Vultures. 2 Eastern
Kingbird, 6+ American Goldfinch, 4-6 Eastern Bluebird, 2 Mourning
doves, dozens of starling, several unidentified sparrows, blackbirds,
swallows.
Thanks for arranging the trip, guys, and I hope to be able to
reciprocate someday soon with the little piece of Dog River that
adjoins my property. Right now my muscles are busy reminding
me I ain't 15 anymore, and I think seines have gotten much heavier
over the last two decades.
Sharon Allsup
Winston, GA
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