Summer time fun

One of our favorite things to do as a family is to take a walk around our community after dinner. If the weather isn’t too hot during summer, we usually take a stroll around the block. There are about 200 households in our community, it’s fairly large. There are two retention ponds in our community that serve as drainage to excess rain water that has accumulated. These two pond are interconnected with other retention ponds in other communities. There is a creek alone the outer edge of our community. A few years back, while out riding bicycles with my sons, we discovered that the were crayfish in the creek!

There is an open drainage pipe that leads to the creek. Every summer and fall, I would take my sons out for a walk alone the drainage pipe. A few sections alone the bank have eroded from the constant water flow. There are rocks, reeds which form the perfect habitat for the crayfish. These little critters have a very keen sense of feel. Before we can get within 10′ of their hiding spots, they all scatter like the street vendors in Taiwan when they hear the word "police".

Two summers ago, I went out with my boys with the intention of catching a few crayfish. Little did we know that it would become one of our favorite summer pastimes. I don’t know how large these thing can grow, but I’m guessing their growth is limited by the environment in which they live in. The nooks and crannies alone the bank aren’t exactly big, the largest crayfish I’ve seen are about 3" long, maybe slightly wider than 1/2" (7.5 cm long x 1.25cm wide).

In the last two years we must have captured and released (from the drainage pipe to retention pond) close to 30 of them. We actually ran out of crayfish to catch by late September last year. Yesterday we went for a walk after dinner. We went back to the old spots and lo and behold, there were signs of crayfish again.! These are still babies but I’m sure they’d mature rather quickly. Looks like me and my boys will be out "crayfishing" again!

Pictures from last summer.



original post date: June 12, 2009