I went out with a class on a collecting trip to Hurricane Creek in the Walls of Jericho tract in Jackson County on the Alabama/Tennessee line yesterday. AndrewAcropora was part of this too. It was our first monthly collection of Telescope shiners for a reproductive biology study, and with previous permission from the State Lands Division we collected 30. It's been cold here lately (freezing temps at night is cold by local standards) and we actually had to break through thin ice to seine in one spring pool along the creek, a first for me in Alabama. The stream water was 9 deg. C, pH 7.2 and TDS 110 ppm; usually both pH and TDS are higher, but it's precipitated a fair amount in the last 10 days so I assume the stream water is diluted.

We weren't looking for darters, but found some black darters and stripetail darters. The male blacks were starting to color up; one in particular was as big as I've seen a black darter, with an orange belly and blues beginning to show up on his snout and body. I've noticed that in general the biggest black darters I see are in this creek for whatever reason. The aquatic inverts were interesting, too; we found lots of crayfish, dragonfly larvae and water pennies.

This trip is a logistical challenge, since we went in on a limited access old logging road that's definitely 4WD only. We were able to hitch a ride in and out with the property ranger who's happy to see research going on at this beautiful, relatively pristine site. By pristine I mean that it hasn't been heavily logged since the 1890s, with some dairy cattle grazing in meadows along the creek since then.

The Telescopes looked pretty good, being one of the three most common species in the creek along with Scarlet and Striped shiners. We didn't find any Flame chubs this time, but we were focusing on the riffles preferred by Telescopes rather than the quieter pools favored by Flames. We'll be going back the first Saturday in March, weather permitting.

The stream water was 9 deg. C, pH 7.2 and TDS 110 ppm; usually both pH and TDS are higher, but it's precipitated a fair amount in the last 10 days so I assume the stream water is diluted.

I might expect heavy precipitation to make the pH approach more closely that of rainwater, which is hopefully neutral, but usually heavy precipitation means erosion and muddier streams. I would expect TDS to be up, not down. Am I missing something here?

I might expect heavy precipitation to make the pH approach more closely that of rainwater, which is hopefully neutral, but usually heavy precipitation means erosion and muddier streams. I would expect TDS to be up, not down. Am I missing something here?

This stream sits in and drains a narrow valley of thin soils over and between crumbling limestone karst, supporting healthy plant cover. There's little evidence of siltation and bank erosion in this upper end of the stream. My observation has been that water quickly percolates into the ground and feeds into the creek through a series of springs lining the creek bed, very obviously so yesterday. What I think happens is that rain water quickly enters the stream through these springs so that the water picks up neither dissolved carbonates nor soil organics. So weakly acidic rainfall enters the stream quickly, dropping the pH slightly and diluting the dissolved solids in the creek. This might not be the case with a heavy rainfall in a short period of time, which happens periodically. But in this case there has been steady but not heavy rain/light snow for 10 days. This phenomenon happens a lot in the limestone karst belt along the AL/TN border, which is loaded with springs and submerged aquifers but because of the shallow depth and fast permeability of the limestone, waters flowing through are not as well filtered as is often the case with submerged streams.

It's been cold here lately (freezing temps at night is cold by local standards) and we actually had to break through thin ice to seine in one spring pool along the creek, a first for me in Alabama. The stream water was 9 deg. C

That's because of global warming, dontcha know!

That's because of global warming, dontcha know!

Say what?

It was a rather enjoyable, if not cold, outing. I was rather disappointed to not have seen more darters than we did, but it was nice to get in, collect what we were there for, and head out. I suspect the upcoming months will make the trip a little easier. The ice-breaking experience was really enjoyable, but I'd rather not do that again too soon. I'm agreeing with you now that DayQuill is actually a miracle drug. Sorry I doubted you before, Fundulus

That's because of global warming, dontcha know!

I'm thinking it was just because Fundulus and I were crazy enough to get out so early.