Man, I love it.
I have a boatload of different creatures that congregate outside my window with the feeder, but there are three that have a particular fondness for peanuts.
Squirrels.
Blue Jays.
Turkeys.
I don’t include the Tufted Titmice, because they won’t compete for them. But the three listed above, do!
The two most common are Squirrels and Blue Jays. The squirrel will win almost every time when they bolt for the thrown peanut and it is close.
I think the squirrels will bite the Jays because of the skittishness of the Jays in that situation, and how they quickly bail out to avoid an altercation. Once in a while, an athletic, hungry Blue Jay will swoop in just ahead of a racing squirrel, and the Jay nabs the peanut on the fly without stopping, and manages to abscond with its booty, the squirrel coming to a stop in obvious frustration and anger.
The squirrel is smart. It knows I prefer to feed the Blue Jays, and appears to be uninterested, focused on looking for seed fragments under the feeder.
But as soon as I throw it, it bolts. It is watching me and pretending not to. Very interesting.
It also takes the tack of hiding under the window, so when I glance out at the Jays lined up in the trees, I don’t see the squirrel and lazily throw it out.
The squirrel darts out and grabs it. I try the fake throw and then throw the peanut the other direction for the Blue Jay, but squirrels never fall for it. Smarter than some dogs, apparently.
So, what I do is toss a peanut to one side for the squirrel, and then throw another peanut in the opposite direction for the Blue Jay.
Funny thing is, everyone knows the rules for this game. The squirrel will go towards the thrown peanut, but as soon as I toss the other one in the other direction, it spins around and goes full tilt for that one, but the Blue Jays usually have a head start, and fail only if they lose their nerve, which they sometimes do.
It is hilarious to watch.
And then the Turkey shows up. EVERYONE avoids the turkey, the squirrel, the Blue Jays...all of them.
But what makes me laugh is when I wave a peanut...
The squirrel sits up on its hind legs facing me squarely, or it splays out, ready to run in any direction.
The Blue Jays hop to better positioned branches, and turn their heads sideways to me so they are only looking at me with one eye.
The Turkey walks right up under the window, stops and looks up.
All of them will remain completely motionless until I throw the peanut.
The Turkey runs at top speed, unhesitatingly picks it up and swallows it, then walks towards the window again, observing to see if another peanut is thrown.
LOL, I wish I could do that all day, but...I can only do it when I take a break and stretch, once or twice an hour.
I keep the peanuts in a big Quaker Oats container, and when I put up the blinds first thing in the morning, I have had up to 15 Blue Jays just sitting there, waiting! As soon as the blinds go up, I open the window, grab the Quaker Oats container and show it to them. They all change posture immediately, turning their heads to look at me with one eye...I don’t know why they do that, but it seems to be a characteristic move that shows extreme interest!
I throw the peanuts out, and the Jays all have their own pecking order, for the most part. They can only get one peanut at a time, God knows they try like hell to pick up two...:) That is how I count how many are there.
Blue Jays also have an unusual penchant for absolutely having to pick up the best and biggest peanut. If you throw two peanuts in the same area, and one is obviously bigger than the other, it unhesitatingly goes for the bigger one.
However, if you throw out two close to each other that are similar in size, the Blue Jay will pick one up, assess it, hop to the other one, drop the peanut, and pick up the other one to assess. If they are close enough in size, I have seen a Blue Jay go back and forth between the peanuts up to five times, picking one up, dropping it, picking up the other, dropping it, going back to the first one...man, is that funny to watch! Talk about greed and indecision!
I know what I’m gonna do for entertainment when I retire!
Great story! Enjoyed very much!
I tried peanuts for jays for the first time last winter. The jays stayed in the woods but a lot of other birds loved them. I used a feeder called a peanut silo, shaped like a thistle feeder but with wire mesh.
I will try putting individual peanut pieces on the deck railing and see what happens.
Friend of mine recommended peanuts for jays but I only saw 2 all winter. They were shy about leaving the woods behind the house.
Tried having the feeder close to woods and then bring it near the deck but ran out of patience.
I moved here last summer. I am amazed at the number and variety of birds here. Never lived with woods so close before. Spring has brought out so many birds I rarely saw at my previous rural home. Scarlet Tananger at my hummingbird feeder the other day was awesome. Baltimore Oriole liked that feeder too. Then saw 2 Indigo Buntings while walking the dog last week. Getting used to seeing Eagles almost every week. Very awesome every time I see one.