Date: 10/9/25 7:09 pm From: Robert O'Brien via Tweeters <tweeters...> Subject: Re: [Tweeters] [obol] Re: Steller's Jay with Salmon eggs - A question for you
To carry on Wayne's comments, over the last few years there has been
growing realization and publications that such feeding by widespread
organisms spreads nutrients from the salmon throughout the watershed.
Thereby distributing theses nutrients not only in the steam but widespread
onto the land. I would never had thought of that. Here is one reference
of many, many. Not necessarily the best one, but what I found with limited
effort.
Bob OBrien Carver OR
https://pacificwild.org/salmon-a-keystone-species/
On Thu, Oct 9, 2025 at 1:01 PM Wayne Hoffman <dmarc-noreply...>
wrote:
> About 25 years ago I heard a seminar by researchers who studied a small
> river tributary to Hood Canal, WA, where Chum Salmon spawned *en masse*.
> They recorded well over 100 different species of vertebrates feeding on
> salmon eggs and/or the carcasses of spawned-out salmon. In addition to the
> expected bears, eagles, and ravens, these ranged from Black-tailed Deer
> biting chunks of flesh from carcasses, to Song Sparrows and other small
> songbirds carrying off eggs one at a time.
>
> Salmon grow from small smolts to large adults at sea, then return and die,
> significantly enriching the streams and surrounding forest where they spawn.
>
> Wayne
>
> ------------------------------
> *From: *"Dan Gleason" <dmarc-noreply...>
> *To: *"rickd" <rickd...>
> *Cc: *"Oregon Birders OnLine" <obol...>, "COBOL" <
> <COBOL...>, <tweeters...>
> *Sent: *Thursday, October 9, 2025 3:02:46 PM
> *Subject: *[obol] Re: Steller's Jay with Salmon eggs - A question for you
>
> What you are saying is the expanded skin showing the contents of the gular
> pouch not the crop. The large gular pouch enable Steller's J's to carry a
> large number of seeds, which they then carry away and store and small
> cashes for later use. The amount that they can carry in this pouch, of
> course varies with the size of the seeds or other food they are taking, but
> it is a significant number. I want watched a Steller's Jay taking four hole
> on shelled peanuts before flying off.
>
>
> On Oct 9, 2025, at 7:00 AM, rick <dmarc-noreply...> wrote:
>
> Good morning.
>
> In the attached picture of a Steller’s Jay gathering Salmon eggs from a
> small river which we visited recently, it appears that the Jay is filling
> its craw with Salmon eggs.
>
> The craw appears to have transparent properties…or is the craw
> damaged/ripped?
>
> Researching this question on the internet did not provide me an answer to
> this question.
>
> Your help in answering this question is appreciated.
>
> No, this picture was not taken in Oregon or Washington.
>
> Rick
>
> <_52J7010 v2 lowres.jpg>
>
>
>
