Coon Creek is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data
The National Map
, accessed May 19, 2011 tributary of the Kishwaukee River in northern Illinois.
Kishwaukee River Watershed
, Watersheds of Illinois - 1996 Fact Sheets, '' Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, 1996, accessed January 22, 2011.

Course

Coon Creek flows north from DeKalb County, Illinois, into McHenry County.
Upper Coon Creek Subwatershed Plan
', ''Kishwaukee River Ecosystem Partnership'', May 2005, accessed January 22, 2011. The stream continues flowing northwest from the DeKalb County–McHenry County line until it empties into the Kishwaukee River in Boone County.
Lower Coon Creek Subwatershed Plan
', ''Kishwaukee River Ecosystem Partnership'', May 2005, accessed January 22, 2011. In terms of square miles drained, Coon Creek is the second-largest tributary of the Kishwaukee River, behind only the

South Branch Kishwaukee River The South Branch Kishwaukee River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed May 19, 2011 tributary of the Kishwaukee River in northern Illinois. The South Branch is the main br ...

.
Piscasaw Creek - Subwatershed plan
'', Kishwaukee River Ecosystem Partnership, May 2005, p. 3, 8 - 10, accessed January 23, 2011.

Description

The DeKalb County and Boone–McHenry County portions of Coon Creek are different in character. While 72% of the

watershed Watershed is a hydrological term, which has been adopted in other fields in a more or less figurative sense. It may refer to: Hydrology * Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins * Drainage basin, called a "watershe ...

, Coon Creek and its tributaries, has had its

stream bed A stream bed or streambed is the bottom of a stream or river (bathymetry) or the physical confine of the normal water flow (Channel (geography), channel). The lateral confines or channel margins are known as the stream Bank (geography), banks ...

channelized Channelized in a telecommunications environment means that the line that communications have been transmitted over contains more than one message thread, separated in some fashion. Typical channelization methods include packetizing, frequency-d ...

(ditched and straightened) only 42% of the Coon's main stem has been channelized. In McHenry County, Coon Creek still features many of its natural features, such as pools and riffles. In DeKalb County, further away from the Kishwaukee, the stream has been entirely channelized, only 6% of the Coon's tributaries in this area have not been channelized. This portion of Coon Creek retains very few of the natural instream characteristics such as pools or riffles.

Wildlife

The Coon Creek watershed (technically a subwatershed) is home to at least 34 different species of fish. Some of the species found in Coon Creek include

bluegill The bluegill (''Lepomis macrochirus''), sometimes referred to as "bream", "brim", "sunny", or "copper nose" as is common in Texas, is a species of North American freshwater fish, native to and commonly found in streams, rivers, lakes, ponds and ...

black crappie The black crappie (''Pomoxis nigromaculatus'') is a freshwater fish found in North America, one of the two types of crappies. It is very similar to the white crappie in size, shape, and habits, except that it is darker, with a pattern of black sp ...

, smallmouth bass, largemouth bass and northern pike. The

blacknose shiner The blacknose shiner (''Notropis heterolepis'') is a species of fish belonging to the family Leuciscidae. Description The blacknose shiner is a soft-rayed species up to 9.8 cm with toothless jaws, but gill arches that contain one or two ro ...

(''Notropis heteropis'') is an example of an endangered fish found in the creek. The creek is also home to two species of reptile, the federally threatened Blanding's turtle (''Emydoidea blandingii'') and the snapping turtle.

Tributaries

Coon Creek has several tributaries. Among them are Harmony Creek, Hampshire Creek, and Burlington Creek.

References

{{reflist Tributaries of the Kishwaukee River Rivers of DeKalb County, Illinois Rivers of McHenry County, Illinois