Salem Ditch: superficial observations
Species observed during a superficial survey of public access points of the Salem ditch at the Stayton public library to the far edge of NORPAC:
Birds:
Anas platyrhynchos - Mallards- counted three pairs
Ardea herodias - Blue Heron
Psaltriparus minimus - Bushtit - counted 5.
Invertebrates:
Ephemeroptera (?) - saw several of these little bugs on the surface. Unsure if actually mayflies or something else. Highly evasive and hard to get good pictures of.
Juga - lots of these little snails throughout. Unsure of species level due to how hard it is to count whorl rings, and should probably come back with a ruler. Some samples were over an inch long.
Margaritifera falcata - dead, shell only. May only be here via animal predation, may come from colonies higher upstream.
Pacifastacus leniusculus - Signal Crayfish
Plants
Callitriche stagnalis - very few of these. Only saw starts, did not see any colonies, but I am not familiar with this plant and its growth pattern.
Fissidens fontanus - Water pocket moss- lots of this right next to the library, in the deepest (and, I'm assuming coldest) part of the stream.
Vaucheria - Only found this in one spot, near the end of the community park. Super thick in that spot, very interested in why this plant might only be established in that area.
I would like to come back and do a more thorough survey. However, whether this is something that's totally allowed or not remains to be seen. I don't want to cause a ruckus but I am very interested in the potential of what other invertebrates and plants may be present that are hard to see from a surface perspective.
