Bright Silver Salmon. Juneau, Alaska. August brings Coho Salmon, aka Silver Salmon, flooding back to the streams of Southeast Alaska. Glistening, powerful fish, I love wading out to fly fish or spin fish in the saltwater channels.
Follow the lives and deaths of salmon if you want to trace the paths of nutrients & energy in Alaska ecosystems. Salmon feed everyone-humans, bears, gulls, eagles, shorebirds, other fish, insects, crabs. EVERYTHING.
And salmon die in the streams after spawning, bringing nutrients to forests and other streamside plant communities.
I thank the salmon when they give their lives to me. Eating these salmon unites me with their lives and the endless circle of my generations and theirs. The salmon and I are one with the landscape.
Willow and Ice-Walker Glacier. Alsek-Tatshenshini Raft Trip in Wilderness.
Willow reflection with ice of retreating Walker Glacier. Alsek River watershed, Alaska. As wild and pristine a place as I’ve found.
Glaciers are strange beasts—grinding rock from the landscape to create the black streak of rubble-covered ice in the background. Yet the white ice & green water reflect colors of purity, heavy with fine flour from the glacier mill, but with almost no organic carbon yet.
Willows are one of the earliest plants to grow on bare silty gravel uncovered after thousands of years under ice. They add nitrogen to the soil, favoring other plants.
Climate change is accelerating changes in this pristine landscape. This lake didn’t exist in 1984. Walker Glacier was a few meters from the Alsek River. By 2013, the glacier had retreated 800 meters. The new lake was 750m wide and 1800 m long.
11-day rafting trip on the Tatshenshini & Alsek Rivers with 10 friends through 3 Canadian and USA national parks that combine into largest designated wilderness in world.
Steller’s Jay 14-day-old chicks in nest near our window today. Juneau, Alaska.
Eyes wide open. Thick gray down. Feathers showing on wings.
Jostling each other for food & space.
Still 4 chicks in the nest.
Fed by both male & female, the chicks spend a lot of time alone while both adults forage.
See my previous posts for newly-hatched chicks & other updates.
Just a brief update as Kate and I are home for a few hours between two UnCruise Advenures wilderness cruises (7-days each) as Insider Hosts. Home again in 1 week.
Steller’s Jay feeding 6-day-old chicks near our window today. Juneau, Alaska. The chicks lie silently in a pile at the bottom of the nest (see my gallery for photos of just-hatched chicks).
When the adult arrives at the nest, it gives a sharp chirp.
Suddenly the open mouths of the chicks appear above the rim of the nest cheeping for food.
Steller’s Jay feeds 6-day-old chicks
I’ve been very surprised that both parents forage for fairly long periods of time, leaving the nest unattended for 5 to 15 minutes or more.
The adult regurgitates food that it has eaten, often crushing it into smaller pieces, and then distributing.
The nestlings are extremely competitive and insistent, cheeping and jostling each other.
But the nest is deep, so at least for now, they don’t seem to in danger of falling out.
They continue to beg with upturned heads and cheeps after the adult is gone, so I don’t think their eyes are open, or at least that they have good sight. Then they settle back into a silent amorphous heap until the next food arrives.
Steller’s Jay – 4 Hatchlings just out of their eggs
4 Steller’s Jay Chicks hatched from eggs outside our window yesterday (May 4)!
Steller’s Jay (Cyanocitta stelleri). Juneau, Alaska.
Quick photo taken while female was away from nest to get food.
These are “hatchlings”. They do not have feathers or down, just bare skin.
Their eyes are still closed.
When they grow fine down and open their eyes in a few days, they will be called “nestlings”.
Steller’s Jay perches on our porch, guarding nest. Mount Jumbo (Mount Bradley) in background. Juneau, Alaska.
The male & female built their nest just 60 cm (24 inches) from our window on April 14.
Since then, the female has sat on the nest. She left sometimes to find food, but the male also helped feed her.
We can’t see into the dark nest, and it is highly backlit, so photography is difficult.
I bought a Selfie Stick (my first) that lets me extend my phone to the nest through our window.
I’m using my iphone & a Bluetooth remote trigger.
Uncle Bill and Aunt Kate have new family members!
Steller’s Jay (Cyanocitta stelleri): Cyanocitta is a genus in the same family as crows and ravens.refers tor the deep blue color.
“Stelleri” is for Georg Wilhelm Steller, a German botanist, zoologist, physician and explorer, who sailed with Vitus Bering on his 2nd voyage in 1741, pioneer of Alaskan natural history.
Steller’s name is attached to species as diverse as sea lions & this lovely jay.
The male & female built their nest just 60 cm (24 inches) from our window on April 14.
Since then, the female has sat on the nest. She left sometimes to find food, but the male also helped feed her.
We can’t see into the dark nest, and it is highly backlit, so photography is difficult.
I bought a Selfie Stick (my first) that lets me extend my phone to the nest through our window.
I’m using my iphone & a Bluetooth remote trigger.
CLICK IMAGE Video as I explore a Fabulous Blue Ice Cave. Feel the satin of ice, strangely warm to touch.
Click image for video: This fabulous blue ice cave that I explored in 2017 has vanished. Feel the satin of ice, strangely warm to touch. Look through 1.2 meters (4 ft.) of clear ice. Mendenhall Glacier, Juneau, Alaska.
I mountain biked across frozen Mendenhall Lake in February 2017 to visit this ice cave.
Completely alone in the cave, I had time to sit quietly with the sound of flowing water, surrounded by shimmering blue walls. Eventually, I narrated this short reflection on a place that would disappear forever.
I visited the cave several more times in February, finding crystal boulders of ice that had fallen from the roof.
The cave has completely vanished as the glacier melts and retreats, melted into water that fed Mendenhall Lake and river last summer, an ephemeral creation and ghost of changing climate and rapid glacial retreat.
Over the next couple of Alaska Billy Blog posts, I’ll continue with more photos and thoughts about this cave and the Mendenhall Glacier.
For additional photos and stories, please visit me on Instagram. I post one photo and story each day.
Western Hemlock is the most abundant tree species in Southeast Alaska.
Western Hemlock is the most abundant tree species in Southeast Alaska. It can reach an age of over 1,200 years, a height greater than 70 m (230 feet), and a diameter over 2.7 m (9 feet).
Wind is the primary cause of disturbance in the Pacific Coastal Temperate Rainforest of Southeast Alaska. Wildfires are infrequent and generally small due to the high rainfall, which ranges from 127 cm (50 inches) to over 508 cm (200 inches) per year.
Windthrown Old-growth Hemlock
Storms can windthrow large patches of timber, but in old-growth forest (generally over 300 years old), most openings are very small, averaging less than 0.8 hectares (2 acres). With small openings, the pattern of trees in mature forest is a mixture of sizes and ages.
The Western Hemlock tree in the photo has been broken by wind. Because bedrock is close to the surface resulting in thin soils and shallow roots, trees often are uprooted by the wind. Since this tree broke, we know its roots were strong.
It’s easy to focus only on the beautiful green forest of living trees when we walk in the woods. But both standing dead trees and logs on the ground are extremely important ecological parts of the forest.
Many wildlife species depend on dead wood for food, shelter, nesting, perching, and escape from predators. As you hike through the forest, take time to observe the many forms of dead wood. Look for the evidence of use by wildlife.
Like so many of the features of the forest, the values of dead wood also create high quality fish habitat.
