Devils Creek

Oct 30 2009

First spawning steelhead of winter 2009

I got a message from Feynner on October 30 that there was a female steelhead trout up in Devil’s Creek Flat. Feynner saw it digging its red (nest) there in what is some of the best spawning habitat in the watershed. I was able to get up there on November 4 and 5 to get some video of the fish.

When I arrived to the pool, there was a big male lying next to the female. I was pleasantly surprised to see she had been found by a partner. I didn’t see any spawning behavior but was able to film both fish both above and below water. The female was passing over the red back and forth and seemed to possibly be fanning the eggs. However, she was rubbing over some larger rocks in the pool as if she was scratching herself on them. Over the rest of the week, she developed a yellow-green color, starting at the head. Her body was covered in scratches and bruises and her tail was rubbed raw from digging. It was remarkable to see how beat up she was from making the run and building the red. That green color got worse over the next days and eventually we found her dead on the side of the main pool on November 10th. The female ended up being 30 inches and the male seemed to be about 6 inches longer than that.

It’s amazing to think that this fish came up from the ocean, spawned and was dead within two to four weeks. We had a big flood on October 13 (See blog entry from October 15) and so I’m assuming that the fish came in on the back end of it. The water stayed relatively high for a week after the rain. This fish has returned pretty early, and it is interesting to think about how early her offspring will be entering the creek. Winter is the prime growing season for trout in the creek so they will have a significant advantage over fish that hatch in the late winter or early spring.

I will post some pictures and hopefully a video of the fish when I can process them.

MDR

Oct 15 2009

First storm of winter 2009. Mining Ridge gets 22 inches

I looked at the blog record for storms of 2009 and found the “first big storm of 2009” entry. During that storm in February, the creek went from 1.8′ to 2.8′ with just 2-3 inches of rain. We got 9 inches that month at the Highlands Peak weather station.

Well, on October 13 alone, we recieved 9.6 inches at Highlands Peak and 5.3 at Whale Point. The NOAA rain gauge on Mining Ridge reported 22 inches fell from 3am the 13th to 7pm the 14th. This seems outrageous but no word yet if that was inaccurate. The level of the gauge pool at Big Creek went from 1.4′ to 5.5′. Big Creek was dark chocolate color while Devil’s Creek was milky brown. All over the banks of the creek was foamy bubbles. Here is a profile of the creek level over four days spanning the storm.

This storm originated as a cyclone off the southern tip of Japan and made it’s way across the Pacific to hit the California coast. The temperature during the storm was about 58 degrees F and even went up to 62 just after the rain stopped. The maximum wind gust at Whale Point was 46 mph and at Highlands Peak was 62 mph. The top of one of the cypress trees at the Gatehouse broke off. It was impressive to see that any of the alders and willows even had leaves at all afterwards.

Here’s a picture of the beach at 7am on the morning of the 14th.

The weather on the 14-15th was sunny and humid. There was a swarm of termites hatching everywhere. The phoebes, bluebirds and bats had their fill.

Feb 18 2009

First big 2009 storm

Here’s what the creek looks like after a week of off and on rain plus three solid days of heavier rain in the Big Creek watershed. The creek height was 1.78′ at the guage pool on 2/14, 1.98′ 2/15 at noon then 2.2′ at 5pm on the 15th. After a whole night of wind and rain the gauge pool was at 2.9′ 8am the 16th. Here are some pictures of the muddy flood. Go to http://ucreserve.ucsc.edu/bigcreek/weather/ to see our weather data. The wind had been gusting around 50 mph for two days. By the middle of the 17th the creek as starting to clear a bit and by the end of the 18th I could at least see the bottom again and the gauge was reading 2.6 feet. We got a total of 4.2 inches between Feb. 12 and Feb. 18.

Big Creek at the confluence 2/16

Big Creek at the old gate on the interpretive trail 2/16

Devils Creek above the bridge to Redwood Camp 2/16