Salmon and autumn are here

Salmon are splashing around. One is out of the water high enough that you can see their eye.

We visited Sooke Potholes and Charters River to look for bears and salmon. We didn’t see any sign of bears, but there were a lot of salmon in the calmer parts of the water. They seemed pretty banged up, with their back halves mostly white, like the scales had rubbed off.

It was cold enough that we were both bundled up in multiple layers and were still a bit cold. We saw lots of leaves turning and cute mushrooms. We saw gulls and a dipper, which we found by listening to their song.

The Sooke river with boulders and overhanging leaves, many of them starting to turn yellow and orange.

An adorable mushroom with red-orange gradient top, white spots, and a white stalk.

Overhead view of a salmon swimming in Charters River. The front is black and spotted and the back is white, like the scales have fallen or been scraped off.

A gull is pecking at a salmon carcass on a rocky beach.

Spotted salmon fins above the surface of the water.

A grey dipper singing a song perched on a rock in moving water.

Beige mushrooms growing in a cluster on a mossy tree.