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.
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.
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.
Sunrise as Mt. Juneau (3,576 ft.; 1,090) m rises straight up from sea level to towers over Douglas Bridge.
The Mt. Juneau trail is a stiff climb, with option to follow the alpine ridgeline and descend using the Perseverance Trail (13-mile round trip).
Juneau & Douglas, Alaska were originally separate competing cities. Treadwell gold mine on Douglas Island, and the Alaska Juneau and Perseverance mines on the Juneau “mainland” (North American continent) were the largest hard rock gold mines in the world from the late 1880’s thru the first several decades of the 20th century.
The Douglas Bridge opened in 1980, replacing the first bridge (built in 1935. Juneau became Alaska’s state capitol in 1906. Juneau-Douglas unified into a single municipality in 1970.
Sunrise Fog-Gastineau Channel, Juneau, Alaska: CLICK PHOTO TO SEE VIDEO
Winter Sunrise: Gossamer cobwebs of mist rise from Gastineau Channel, floating south in the early morning air flow. View from the Douglas Bridge, that connects downtown Juneau to Douglas Island (see previous post for more about the bridge and cities).
The sun will rise another few degrees above the horizon, then drift west to disappear behind the Douglas Island mountains to the right by noon. A cloudless winter day, minus 5 C (23 F). Froze my fingers taking this vid.
Exposed tideflats provide food for Gulls and Shorebirds, Douglas Island, Alaska
It’s low tide: along the right side of the view, Douglas Island’s exposed tideflats show as a black shadow between the sunlit water and the snow above the high tideline. Gulls and shorebirds will be feeding here among the blue mussel-kelp beds, just as they do below the Douglas Bridge.
Dark, weighty clouds in the distance nearly hide the mountains of Admiralty Island. Although the wind is light here, the thinly banded clouds between the dark bank and the blue sky look like they could be shaped by higher winds, probably coming down Taku Inlet.
Sheep Creek Estuary at low tide. Gulls feeding on chum salmon eggs
Gulls feeding on salmon eggs and carcasses, Juneau, Alaska. Chum Salmon (aka “Dog Salmon”) and Pink Salmon (aka “Humpies”) spawning in Sheep Creek estuary. CLICK THE PHOTO BELOW TO SEE VIDEO: 10 seconds into video, a chum salmon with red and purple stripes thrashes into shallows. Past this chum salmon out in the channel, see the humped backs of pink salmon in spawning frenzy.
Gulls feeding on Chum Salmon eggs. CLICK IMAGE FOR VIDEO
Pinks and Chums are the only two species of salmon whose fry (newly hatched young) migrate immediately back to saltwater. They become “smolt”: their bodies and metabolism change so they can live in saltwater. The young of the other 3 species (Chinook, Coho, and Sockeye) stay in streams and lakes for 1 or more years before they go out to sea.
Once in the ocean, their life histories diverge. Pink salmon spend only 1 year feeding in saltwater, migrating back into the streams as 2-year-old adults, the smallest of the salmon at 2.2 kg (4.8 lbs.). Chum Salmon remain in the ocean for 2-4 years, so return as 3 to 5-year-olds. Their longer life of feeding and growing results in weights of 4.4 to 10.0 kg (9.7 to 22.0 lbs.)
The high protein-high fat salmon and their eggs are super-foods for predators like gulls, shorebirds, bears, and humans. As they die, the nutrients from their bodies feed aquatic and terrestrial plants and invertebrates from crab to insects in the Coastal Temperate Rainforest. These are critical habitats and migratory passages that require protection from pollutants, destruction, and blockage.
