Description
Hiking along the coastal forests I naturally think of this lovely green fish.
Cutthroat Trout: (Salmo clarki)
These trout grow up to 30 inches and 41 pounds. They are both a salt water and freshwater fish. Very popular as a sport fish, small ones caught in saltwater are nicknamed “sea-trout”. Cutthroat range along the Pacific coast from Southern Alaska to northern California and inland from southern British Columbia and Alberta south to New Mexico and from eastern California to central Colorado. Spawning February to May (and as early as December in the Cowichan River on Vancouver Island) in fresh water the young go to sea in their second and third year. There are ten sub species of this trout, some of which are extinct.
As I painted them the forest came to life inside them. The left hand cutthroat has one of my favorite birds pictured:
Northern Flicker: Colaptes auratus
Though this woodpecker I painted is on a tree, it is usually seen foraging on the ground unlike other woodpeckers. Ants being a main part of their diet. They are quite large growing to a length of 12.5” and weighing about 4.6 oz or 130 grams. They appear in most of western North America and here of Gabriola Island they are a common sight year round.
In the top fish the totems are an extension of the forest and as they came from nature so do they weather and go back to it. In the right hand fish I have designed a frog totem. It wasn’t surprising to have it show up in a picture of spring as frogs represent new life in much First Nations Lore.
