May 2019 thru October 2019 & May 2020
Below is a fairly substantial dated photographic record of the alewife migration and water levels in the Walker to Slough Pond passage for the year of 2019. (Hover over each for specific date.) You can see that the water levels were very good and the channel had been maintained. As my primary objective was not photographing the fish, but the dogs, they are hard to discern in the water, but they are there. Our dogs are terriers and their friend was a dachshund, all fishing dogs, that is, interested in watching them but not actually catching them. Note that they were always on leashes and not allowed in when the water was thick with migrating alewives. The final photograph pictures the conditions in May of 2020 and at the bottom a very short video of the fry heading downstream in the fishway passage on October 21, 2019. See Resource page for MA Precipitation Data Records.
The pandemic struck in March of 2020. We curtailed our neighborhood walks with the dogs which had included frequent visits to the passage. This social distancing practice continued through the three primary years of the pandemic, 2020 - 2022. In the spring and summer of 2020, we experienced a drought on the Cape which effected the passageway. In the fall of 2022, my attention was taken up with acting as publicist for the Friends of Wing Island, a duty I assumed as its Co-chair.
We returned to our frequent visits to the fishway in February of 2023, when I started this year's photographic record, along with several neighbors and other visitors, happy to be social once again. We were all concerned with the deplorable state we found our passageway in.
The alewives that made their way out to sea in 2019, pictured here, would have begun returning to their home pond, Slough, at the earliest in 2022 when they reached maturity at 3 years. 2022 was a drought year so their passage in may have been impeded. These are the same fledglings returning in 2023. (It comes to mind that if the NRD wanted to teach them to not return to Slough Pond this year would be an opportunity.)
Below is a fairly substantial dated photographic record of the alewife migration and water levels in the Walker to Slough Pond passage for the year of 2019. (Hover over each for specific date.) You can see that the water levels were very good and the channel had been maintained. As my primary objective was not photographing the fish, but the dogs, they are hard to discern in the water, but they are there. Our dogs are terriers and their friend was a dachshund, all fishing dogs, that is, interested in watching them but not actually catching them. Note that they were always on leashes and not allowed in when the water was thick with migrating alewives. The final photograph pictures the conditions in May of 2020 and at the bottom a very short video of the fry heading downstream in the fishway passage on October 21, 2019. See Resource page for MA Precipitation Data Records.
The pandemic struck in March of 2020. We curtailed our neighborhood walks with the dogs which had included frequent visits to the passage. This social distancing practice continued through the three primary years of the pandemic, 2020 - 2022. In the spring and summer of 2020, we experienced a drought on the Cape which effected the passageway. In the fall of 2022, my attention was taken up with acting as publicist for the Friends of Wing Island, a duty I assumed as its Co-chair.
We returned to our frequent visits to the fishway in February of 2023, when I started this year's photographic record, along with several neighbors and other visitors, happy to be social once again. We were all concerned with the deplorable state we found our passageway in.
The alewives that made their way out to sea in 2019, pictured here, would have begun returning to their home pond, Slough, at the earliest in 2022 when they reached maturity at 3 years. 2022 was a drought year so their passage in may have been impeded. These are the same fledglings returning in 2023. (It comes to mind that if the NRD wanted to teach them to not return to Slough Pond this year would be an opportunity.)
