(WSB photos, video)

It is now the season of suspense for those who care for and about Fauntleroy Creek: When will coho salmon spawners show up? Wondering about questions like that is what concluded this year’s gathering to welcome them, with singing, drumming, and more. Some of the ~100 people who showed up visited the creek after ceremonially placing stones on a banner in the center of their circle:

The gathering was just yards from the creek, in a courtyard outside the home of creek stewards (and Salmon in the Schools volunteers) Judy Pickens and Phil Sweetland. Judy told the crowd she was “delighted you all are interested in this little creek of ours.”

More than a quarter-century has passed since Judy and other volunteers led the restoration that brought salmon back into the creek. Now, each year the work to keep it accessible includes clearing logs from the creek’s mouth near the ferry dock (that was done three weeks ago). Now it’s time to watch, wait, and count – Dennis Hinton told the gathering that while the high tides are high enough now for salmon, there’s not enough water in the creek for them until we get more rain.

(Even that might not bring immediate results, he noted, since the first spawners didn’t show up until early November last year.) Learning about the creek and fish was a lesson for all ages in attendance:

The music-making was again led by Jamie Shilling:

She was joined this year by Chaz Hastings, a tabla drummer who Judy also noted is a “newly minted creek volunteer”:

The gathering was, as always, brief, with a few familiar songs paying tribute to the creek and the fish, and a chance for the kids to imagine what it might be like to be a fish:

Dappled late-afternoon sun came through the creekside trees, as organizers observed they couldn’t remember the last time this mid-October gathering was greeted by 70-degree warmth. Likely it’ll be colder, and muddier, by the time the fish make their appearance; as Judy told the gathering, once that happens, volunteers will likely host an “open creek” day so you come down to creekside to try to see them yourself (watch for announcements here on WSB). It’s impossible to predict how spawning season will go – last year, watchers counted 34 coho; the year before, 254.