Photos and notes from on the road. A biologist at heart. A 'retired' network administrator and lifelong photographer. Living in Ashland Wisconsin on Lake Superior's Chequamegon Bay.
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Nature's dating scene?
Is this nature's equivalence of a single's bar? Bluejays socializing.
These guys to me are like the bird police. Their colors are right for police and whenever one of them sees something that could be a threat, like a cat or a snake, they raise holy hell. The other birds in the area come racing over to see what the racket is all about. So they sort of sound the alarm to warn the neighborhood of possible danger.
Late yesterday afternoon a male Blue Grosbeak visited my bird feeder. I had never seen one before and according to Peterson's bird book that little guy shouldn't even be here. Well, the Pop family was giddy from seeing this new bird. I'm writing him down in my diary when I glanced up again at the feeder and a male Rose-breasted Grossbeak had joined in the eating fun at the feeder. We had seen one once before in 1999, but this was also a very big deal.
We just about bird-nerded out! You would have thought we won the damned lottery. In our bird world, we did. :)
Crows do that here. They pluck the babies or other birds from the nest, take them, say to the roof of a house, and knock them against the roof until they kill them. Then they eat them. I have never seen a blue jay rob a nest here. Maybe they are so busy guarding their own nests from the crows that they don't have time for crimes of their own.
3 comments:
These guys to me are like the bird police. Their colors are right for police and whenever one of them sees something that could be a threat, like a cat or a snake, they raise holy hell. The other birds in the area come racing over to see what the racket is all about. So they sort of sound the alarm to warn the neighborhood of possible danger.
Late yesterday afternoon a male Blue Grosbeak visited my bird feeder. I had never seen one before and according to Peterson's bird book that little guy shouldn't even be here. Well, the Pop family was giddy from seeing this new bird. I'm writing him down in my diary when I glanced up again at the feeder and a male Rose-breasted Grossbeak had joined in the eating fun at the feeder. We had seen one once before in 1999, but this was also a very big deal.
We just about bird-nerded out! You would have thought we won the damned lottery. In our bird world, we did. :)
Birder we're all alike. It's always about the next sighting.
Bluejays I agree they are the police. My only complaint with them is they rob other nests.
A bit of a sad story, For weeks we watched a family of sparrows in a bird house just outside our kitchen window.
One day we saw little mouths popping up in the nest.
The next day Mrs. Shutterwi started screaming for me to come quick.
By the time I got around the house to the bird house a bluejay had raided the nest and.....
Well needless to say they aren't very popular around here.
Crows do that here. They pluck the babies or other birds from the nest, take them, say to the roof of a house, and knock them against the roof until they kill them. Then they eat them. I have never seen a blue jay rob a nest here. Maybe they are so busy guarding their own nests from the crows that they don't have time for crimes of their own.
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