Eighth shift as a herring monitor

Today, I returned for one more shift on the Mystic Lakes Dam, counting herring running up river into the Upper Mystic Lake. My shift was 7am on a beautiful day – that’s a view of the Upper Mystic Lake this morning. It’s going to heat up to the 90s by mid-afternoon so I’m glad I had an early morning shift.

I counted 17 herring in my 10 minute shift. This is probably my last shift and I’m a little sad about it. The count will continue to the end of June, but I have some travel coming up, so I won’t be able to do any more.

The herring are also starting to return down river. Of course, they don’t need the ladder to do that. They can come down the spillway. The danger is that the spillway is very shallow and the seagulls like to hang out and pick them off. The gulls were feasting when I arrived, but they seem to have backed off by the time I left. If you look closely below, you can see the fish being swept down the spillway.