Wednesday, July 19, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Tales from a
Sisters
Naturalist
by Jim Anderson
Sculpin in
Whychus Creek?
Just about the time you
think you know who the
key players are in Whychus
Creek, along comes an
inquisitive, 9-year-old soon-
to-be-fourth-grader from
Sisters Elementary School
who drags home a weird tro-
phy from his exploration of
the creek that drops jaws.
If he had his way, Daniel
would get home from school
and immediately head for
Whychus Creek for any num-
ber of activities. He’s already
a fly fisherman who knows
how to do it, when to do it,
and where to do it.
But if the visit to the creek
isn’t to his liking for fly fish-
ing, he’s just as happy explor-
ing for anything that moves
in, under, over and any-
where near the creek. Once
he watched a garter snake
eat a fish, and for him, that
was almost as good as if he’d
caught it himself.
Daniel’s also very happy
just to be rafting in Whychus
— or any other body of water
— for that time-consuming
activity takes him to new and
different stretches of creeks,
river, and lakes where he can
explore for new and different
critters in the flashing water
around him.
So, it wasn’t a big surprise
for any of the Miller family
when Daniel came home car-
rying two unknown animals
that resembled fish, and one
apparently eating one like it.
No one in the Miller family
knew what he had, and when
his mom, Randi, sent the
photo to me and asked what
they were, I didn’t know
either…
But, several images from
my youth did pop into my
memory when I looked at
the photos again and again. It
came slowly, but it made no
sense, my memory of them
was in the wrong place…
I couldn’t recall the
name, but I did remember
seeing something like them
while clamming with my
grandfather in the saltwater
and sandy beaches of Long
Island Sound in West Haven,
Connecticut. That made no
sense in Sisters, Oregon.
So, what were sculpin —
a salt-water fish — doing in
Whychus Creek?
To try and get a better
handle on what Daniel had
dragged home, I sent an
email to Forest Service Fish
Biologist Nate Dachtler,
but forgot to send him the
photo I received from Randi
Miller. When I did send
Nate the image his response
was, “That is a cool picture.
Looks like a sculpin in the
sculpin’s mouth.”
OK, that indicated to me
it was no surprise to him
that a sculpin was found eat-
ing a sculpin in Whychus
Creek, but for people who
don’t know they were even
there here’s what I got off
Wikipedia:
“A sculpin is a type of fish
that belongs to the superfam-
ily Cottoidea in the order,
Scorpaeniformes. As of 2006,
this superfamily contains 11
families, 149 genera, and 756
species.
“Sculpins occur in many
types of habitat, including,
ocean and freshwater (sur-
prise to me!) They live in
rivers, submarine canyons,
kelp forests and shallow litto-
ral habitat types, such as tide
pools.
(And, as of today at
least, swift-flowing streams
H’ H
A’ H
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PHOTO BY JIM ANDERSON
Daniel admiring his catch of the day, frozen for posterity.
lined with volcanic rocks in
Sisters.)
“Sculpins are bottoms-
dwellers; their pectoral fins
are smooth on the upper
edge and webbed with sharp
rays along the lower edge,
a modification that makes
them specialized for gripping
the substrate. This adaptation
helps the fish anchor in fast-
flowing water.”
That’s exactly where
Daniel found those two he
hauled home.
Now, why don’t you
scramble on down to
Whychus Creek and see how
many sculpins you can find,
and when you do, ask them
how they got from the Pacific
Ocean, up the Columbia,
up the Deschutes and into
Whychus Creek.
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