Cathy Pohl filmed this great blue heron fishing for crescent gunnels on the delta of Dzantik’i Héeni, little flounder creek (Gold Creek). Ravens were also collecting them. While the heron swallowed each catch on-site, the ravens set them aside to catch more, then flew off with mouths-full, probably to young in the nest.
Later, I wondered about how old those gunnels were. If, like other Alaskan fish, they might have been older than the birds catching them, how ‘sustainable’ was this foraging? And how deep do gunnels live? Is there a ‘limitless’ supply of more gunnels, deep in the subtidal, ready to replenish the bird-depleted intertidal population?
