Date: 10/10/25 11:08 am From: HAL MICHAEL via Tweeters <tweeters...> Subject: Re: [Tweeters] [obol] Re: Steller's Jay with Salmon eggs - A question for you
There is quite a robust literature about how salmon deliver nutrients from the marine waters to freshwater and then out into the rest of the terrestrial ecosystems. Wayne mentions the work on Kennedy Creek where so many species were documented as using the carcasses. Even down to hummingbirds. And trees show significant benefits, too.
While this nutrient transfer has been recognized for more than a century it was beginning in the late 1989s/90s that interest and studies really boomed. At least part of the reason was the development of chemical methods to track the nutrients.
Hal Michael
Board of Directors, Ecologists Without Borders http://ecowb.org/ Olympia WA
360-459-4005
360-791-7702 (C)
<ucd880...>
> On 10/10/2025 10:36 AM PDT George Miller via Tweeters <tweeters...> wrote:
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>
> IIRC , the German forester Peter Wohlleben expounds into the subject of salmon and nutrient distribution in his book “Forest Walking”.
>
>
>
> On Thu, Oct 9, 2025 at 23:30 Alan Roedell via Tweeters <tweeters...> mailto:<tweeters...> wrote:
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> > Remarkable! Firm evidence that farmed salmon are not an acceptable substitute for wild fish.
> >
> > On Thu, Oct 9, 2025, 6:52 PM Robert O'Brien via Tweeters <tweeters...> mailto:<tweeters...> wrote:
> >
> > > 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...> mailto:<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...> mailto:<dmarc-noreply...> > > > > To: "rickd" <rickd...> mailto:<rickd...> > > > > Cc: "Oregon Birders OnLine" <obol...> mailto:<obol...>, "COBOL" <COBOL...> mailto:<COBOL...>, <tweeters...> mailto:<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...> mailto:<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>
> > > > >
> > > >
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