I have not had a chance to update the blog in quite some time but I do now! My field work this summer was split between lamprey in the St. Lawrence region and back in the Genesee River.
The first images are from the Deer River in the St. Lawrence, truly a beautiful watershed just to the north of the Adirondack forest.
One of the lampreys I captured at this site, an American brook lamprey, already quite large and probably going to spawn next year.
Other lampreys from a site further downriver. This is actually a different species of lamprey, a Northern brook lamprey. Although it looks very similar to the American brook lamprey as a larva you would easily be able to tell them apart as adults.
The lamprey immediately above cam from right under this bridge. In this river lamprey were everywhere where there was soft sediments to burrow into.
A view of another stream close by called Trout Brook. Trout brook is of course home to many trout, and receives some fishing, but it is also home to a very nice American brook lamprey population.
Here are just some of the "summer hogs" I collected from next to the culvert. They were measured and released.
A good example of growth at ages. Each one of the animals above is an average age for its size, the smallest lamprey above the "USA" at the top is from this year (age-0). You can age the others as you move down, the last animal is likely age-6. This is best guess work however, the lowest animal could be younger or older, it is very hard to know exactly how old it is.
And here is a good example of why it is hard to age lamprey by size. Both of these animals are from this year, but already you can see that there is a large difference in size.
Enough of the St. Lawrence lamprey, here are some pictures from the Genesee River.
A long-nose dace captured at the same time as the lamprey.
A really nice fantail darter also captured at the same site.
A bunch of fish, including the ones above, from the site I captured American brook lamprey at. This site is at Dyke Creek, and is where I did my mark-recapture work.
A perfect example of lamprey growth through time here again, but now with an animal called a transformer at the bottom. Animals at Dyke Creek are probably growing faster than at the St. Lawrence and you can see it takes a shorter amount of time to get big. The last animal will spawn this spring and then die.
A literal pile of small animals from this year's spawning run. Hopefully they will do well this winter and produce a strong year class.
A dragonfly perching while I worked. The color on it was truly stunning so I felt obligated to stop working long enough to take a picture.
