May 23 River Rainbows

Another journey to the shores of Lake Superior brought me to the mouth of the French River. I spotted some common mergansers and a double-crested cormorant out on the lake before turning my attention to the river. There, at the mouth of the river, I saw several rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) with their very visible pinkish-red stripes. Rainbow trout are native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific Ocean, but they were introduced in Minnesota in the late 1800s. Much like their anadromous western cousins who migrate from the ocean back to streams to spawn, these potamodromous rainbow trout migrate from Lake Superior back to their natal streams to spawn. Rainbow trout that follow such a migratory life cycle are called steelhead, perhaps because they need a mind of steel to find their home streams.