Weekly Observations; 4/7/25-4/13/25

What an interesting week. This is my summary of it, words and below that a photo summary too. Get your coffee and enjoy the tales of adventure.

My first jut out into Nature was Tuesday for a quick hike at Artpark. Nothing too major to say besides the usual birds that are there and ice was flowing down stream.

Saturday morning I got out for an attempt at a Steelhead. Here is where the bird observations went up significantly. As I was rigging up my rod I started recording on the Merlin Bird app and in six minutes these are the birds it captured.

-Eastern Phoebe

-Song Sparrow

-Golden-crowned Kinglet

-Dark-eyed Junco

-Northern Cardinal

-Black-capped Chickadee

-Mallard

-Tufted Titmouse

-White-breasted Nuthatch

A beautiful chorus of songs. After closing the app the birding continued. Which started when a Belted Kingfisher flew past me a few times singing his song and making his rounds. After that some Geese decided to join in.

As I got to what I figured would be the most productive hole, a Bald Eagle landed in a tree high in the ravine. It was amazing to witness, as always. I wish that had been a good omen, but I broke off soon after on a tree, whoops!

After snagging the Eagle flew off, then I hoped another hole down and met up with them again. Soon after for them to fly away over the tree line. The fishing summary is simple; the water was really clear and a bit low. As I fished down stream I was fishing a streamer and then on the way back up I switched over to a nymph rig.

They did not produce any fish, but regardless it was good reps on the water; wading, casting, rigging, getting in-tune with Nature and enjoying some solitude. The last awesome bird siting was a Great Blue Heron that came out of nowhere and flew rather close overhead.

The rock patterns really intrigued me. All the shades of color in there. As an artist it is inspiring. Upon arriving home I made a nice latte and omelet which was extra good after the fishing outing.

Having been so fired up to fish, my mind stayed on just that. So naturally I tied some flies! The Zonker variation shown below is one of my favorite ties so far. Just looks fishy. On one of my daily walks, I was getting back to my apartment and noticed a ton of Song Sparrows and wanted to capture it. Below are the results. Very pleased with it. In my head I thought I got multiple shots off before it took flight, and that photo was actually the first I took and the second shot it was gone.

Also managed to get in a lot of website updating as well as starting the Two Angles On Angling YouTube page! Soon all our podcasts will be available there too.

Wrapping up with Sunday. My friend Tyler and I decided to poke out for some Browns and Steelhead. We went to spot neither of us had been to in many years and this time fly fishing. So we had our minds on recon and not success of fish caught.

Our drive started off a little later than we wanted, but that meant we had daylight the whole way. This started our bird observations when we saw two Red-tailed Hawks in a tree! We proceeded to see six Red-tailed Hawks total, pretty sweet!

Not much to say on the fishing front. The water was low, clear but dingy. We did our best and enjoyed it. The longer car ride lead to many great conversations about the outdoors, life and the future. At the end of the day, that is just as good as the fishing.

Thank you for reading my weekly recap. Stay tuned for more to come! Tight lines!

Jordan H. DiVirgilio