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.

Add caption

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

Snow, Ice and Water

Water, Snow and Ice

Tuesday, after I left Plymouth on the way home I stopped at Oliver Mills Park in Middleborough Massachusetts to observe how the area was looking after the snow and freeze that we have had. One of the nicest things of the day, was that the sky was brightly overcast and I did not have to worry about harsh shadows since I was arriving close to midday. There was ice where the waters of the Nemasket River were flowing over the dams, which lent those areas to various photographic interpretations. Here are mine.

Close-up of water drops as the water rushes through a narrow opening. This photograph was obtained by leaning over the railing and utilizing my 70 to 200 lens for the close-up

Black and White processed photograph of water flowing over the dam with snow and ice

Water rushing through ice and snow

Panoramic View

 Video showing the force of the water