More from the Middleborough-Lakeville Herring Run

Herring Congregated in a Pool

As I had written on the previous blog yesterday I went to Oliver Mill Park to the herring run. The herrings are coming up the river in large groups. There were hundreds of them present trying to get up the rapids and the dams. Both at Oliver Mills Park and the herring run fish ladder on Wareham Street in Middleboro add a number of families there with the parents or grandparents introducing the children to this annual spectacle. At the park, one father reached in and caught a couple of the herring to show to the children. He then let him go into the river above the dam so they can continue on their journey.

Family Observing the Herring

Father Trying to Catch a Herring

"He caught one"

Herring-alewife

Herring trying to jump up the dam

Herring swimming up the river

Remember this coming weekend is the first annual River Herring Festival at Oliver Mill Park and other locations in Middleborough. You can get the whole event calendar at https://www.facebook.com/HerringFriends?hc_location=timeline

Hope to see you there, it looks like it's going to be a great event.

Spring and the Herring Have Arrived

Oliver Mills Park at the junction of Route 44 and Nemansket St., Middleborough, MA

On the second day of Spring the herring finally showed up at Oliver Mill Park in Middleboro Massachusetts. Talking with a member of the Lakeville-Middleboro Fisheries Commission, he told me that he saw one herring down at the fish ladder yesterday.  The problem will be starting on Sunday 3/23 the temperature will be in the 30's degrees or lower and the herring will wait in the deep holes of the Taunton river  until the temperature rises and the water gets warmer. .

Oliver Mill Park is a great place to visit. There are picnic tables so you can enjoy a lunch or a snack. There are remnants of the old mill and for you photographers, when the herring start running you can photograph gulls and great blue herons feeding plus photograph the herring jumping to get over the dam to make their way up to their breeding area in Assawompsett. If you are into macro photography, Ebony Jewelwing Damselflies and other interesting subjects are present when the weather gets warmer.

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To photograph the herring you can use a polarizing filter on your lens to cut down the glare from the water or use a underwater camera and place it down into the water and fire away.

At the end of the second bridge on the right if you look down there is a pool where the herring congregate prior to them trying to jump up over the dam and is a good place to photograph the having

Herring in the pool

This is the easier way for the herring to make it up the Nemansket River

 On April 11-13 the commission's have in the first annual Herring Run Festival. More information can be found at facebook.com/herringfriends. Hope to see you there

Families at the Herring Run

Watching the herring run

I had mentioned in my previous blog, how visiting a Herring Run was a great activity to bring the family.  I went back to the Herring Run at Oliver Mill Park in Middleborough, Massachusetts, where families were there looking at all the herring going upstream to spawn.  The age range was from extremely young children to senior citizens.  A number of the children were reaching in trying to capture by hand a herring.  Some of young lads were able to capture a herring, they either let them immediately go or let them go above the dam, so they can continue on their upward journey.  It was a beautiful sunny day, and everybody was having fun.

Catching a herring

Catching a herring

letting the herring go

Showing a herring to a young child

Standing in the pool with the herring

Caught one

Families watching the herring run

Herring

Swimming up a small dam

Alewife

The Herring are Coming.

Alewife under the water

This morning, I visited Oliver Mills Park in Middleborough, Massachusetts.  This is a site of an old mill and with its channels and rushing water and dams is where the herring start to congregate on their passage up to Assawompset to breed.  The huge crowds of alewives have not started yet, but there were a number of alewives swimming around waiting to jump up over the dams and continue their swim upstream.

One of the dams at Oliver Mill Park

Fast water coursing at Oliver Mill Park

I picked an area, that was in the sun and I stood with my camera on a tripod at right angles to the sun, with a polarizer on my lens, focused below the water surface and try to capture the fish swimming, I did get a a few pictures, which I will share with you.  As the days warm up, the herring run should increase and make for interesting photo opportunities.  We did have an Osprey flyover head and dive into the water to capture a fish.

Osprey looking for fish