Hot Fish & Cool Tops

June/July 2022

Happy Summer!
It’s event season for my day job, which means that I’m spending more time resting and less time making stuff these days. Here, I share my South Dakota Master Naturalist field trip to Gavins Point National Fish Hatchery. I can’t (won’t) stop drawing fish and this sure encouraged the habit.

You’ll also find a silly advice column here, with questions sourced from friends on my Instagram!
Keep cool,
Tenley Schwartz
Editor, Illustrator, Fish Fan

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Fish Trip

It’s wonderful to step from blistering 90℉ heat into the damp coolness of the aquarium and hatchery outbuildings.

Scientists are the coolest and everything’s a little more makeshift and human than I imagine science usually.

Pallid sturgeon deserve their own story. They’re finicky and bad at mating, so they need a lot of help.

We got to feed trout! And then feed ourselves:

To cap it all off, we did a How to Lead a Bird Identification hike. Our group of mostly retirees stopped in the shade for long stretches.

Everyone survived, and shared lots of accumulated bird knowledge. (Did you know birdwatchers use wing flap patterns to identify species? Or that people keep binoculars in their cars for impromptu birding?) Overall, a lovely experience.

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Thanks, as always, for reading. I love hearing about your favorite parts of these stories.

❤️, Ten