Fish Kill on Timber Trace Creek

Unraveling the mystery; Welcome to Boston~!

We landed last night in Boston area for a few days. The skies are bright blue this morning. There’s a sprinkling of snow in the shaded areas where the sun hasn’t reached. A crisp cold December morning. I hope to get out for a walk soon, but wanted to get this post out while the memories are still fresh.

You may recall this from my last post:

As I was tracking some Sandhills Cranes I came to a spot on Timber Trace Creek that was still open water.

The water was moving! Something was swimming, although the temp was 22 F (-6C). Watch in the short video how the water seems to be boiling.

Small fish have been trapped here in this spot along the creek and are swimming in this pool to keep it from freezing. What a perfect smorgasbord for Herons and Cranes!

Here’s another link to that video.:

I could see the little fish coming up to the top. Now I know why they were swimming like that. They were suffocating! No oxygen!

I returned Friday afternoon and they were all dead.

A dozen minnows were lying on the bottom of the stream.

My initial thought was Fish Kill! Must report fish kill!

The minnows were of different sizes. My waders were at the cottage, so I couldn’t get too far into the water, but I was able to fish out two of them and placed them on the bank for easier photography.

Above is the smallest one, only about 1 1/2”.

Here’s the bigger one, maybe 3” long.

I placed them side by side for comparison. (Note to self: stick a measuring tool in your pack for future photos!)

The water was clear and cold. No sign of oil spills, no foul odor, no evidence of pollution. I have been walking along this stream daily since we returned from Europe. It runs right behind our home. The lake that feeds this stream has frozen.

The light bulb went off! There’s no water coming over the little dam that forms the lake now. The previous day I had thought these little guys were going up to the top of the water to keep it from freezing. I was wrong. They were suffocating from lack of oxygen!

I walked back upstream.

The creek bed was dry. No water was coming into the pool where they had died.

The combination of ice and snow instead of rain had dried up the creek, and these minnows had used up all the oxygen in their little pool before fresh rain could save them.

When I got home I researched the Michigan DNR website. Fish kills are common and normal!

So this is my report on the fish kill on Timber Creek. Maybe I will send a link to this report to the DNR and pick up a few subscribers~!

I left the minnows out on the rock, hoping some hungry birds or maybe a mink will find them and enjoy a nice snack. I will report further next week when we are back in town.

The good news is that the existence of all these little fish must mean that the stream and the lake that feeds it are healthy!

Oh by the way there were still plenty of fresh Sandhill Crane tracks. It looks like a flock of half a dozen or so are still active along the creek. With snacks like these for taking, I can see why the Cranes and Herons are still around, although as I mentioned yesterday some herons stay all winter.

There was a fire on the Blue Mountain this fall near where we will be hiking this morning. I wonder if I will be able to show you some pictures tomorrow.

Thanks so much for traveling along~! Time to go for a walk.