This is the first time in years that the creek has gone dry this early in the summer. Last year it never went dry. My memory gets fuzzy beyond that. I remember back in the late '80s the streambed was dry much of the time. I remember that because for one period in '89 I commuted to work by walking up the streambed to my job on the other side of Central Expressway. It was one of the most enjoyable commutes I've ever had.

Sometimes I ask people if they have ever seen fish in the creek. Last year a guy said that when the pools had started to shrink the previous year, he had seen fish swimming in it. I guess they had started the spring as tadpoles, and had grown into fish in the shrinking pond after the water stopped flowing. He had tried one time to catch them to take them downstream in a bucket, but they hadn't let him. Then later in the summer they had died as the pool shrank. I guess this year the egrets are going to get them earlier, because the pool is already shrinking fast.