Travel Tuesdays: Herring Are Running!

I hope my regular Travel Tuesday readers don't mind one more day of diversion... I just have to post about something that's happening right now. If you live in Southeastern Massachusetts or on Cape Cod, try to get to a herring run. I've been watching this annually since I was a kid. It's still quite amazing!

Take a look. Can you see how the water is "boiling" with herring (fish that are also called alewives)? Look at those fins sticking up!

                                    

They're all swimming upstream, against the river, to reproduce!

Here's the river. Instead of going up that waterfall, they'll go up the man-made fish ladder that starts on the left side of the picture.

Here's the ladder. It gradually rises to water level on the other side of the road the river passes beneath.

These fish successfully made it over this step. It's not unusual, however, to see fish fall back as they get tired from swimming so hard.

Once they get over a step, they can rest a bit on the edges of the ladder where the water doesn't flow as fast.

Here's a video I shot yesterday. It's a bit hard to see, but you can get a feel for how many fish are there.

I sure am glad that traveling isn't as hard for me as it is for these fish!

Have you noticed any new animals migrating in your area? Many songbirds have appeared in our area over the last few weeks. How about you?

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