"PhoneSkope makes all sorts of adapters for different binoculars and different phones.
Posted on 06/15/2024 6:14:29 PM PDT by rlmorel
Today, mostly robins and crows, but also hummingbirds and the crested flycatchers that decided to make a nest on the light outside my front door.
Oh, man. Orioles...they are pretty rare up here, but we had a pair hanging around for a while. We tried the oranges and grape jelly too, but they were just passing through!
Stellar’s Jay! Those are beautiful, I have never seen one! I love Blue Jays, though. Love them! Sure, they are noisy, but they are so much fun to watch, with all their expressive sounds, their athletic flight, their body language.
Jays are indeed smart, but they have funny and sometimes goofy behavior. I disliked them for many years, because I never paid attention to them except the raucous call they make that is so irritating to our ears.
When I describe Blue Jays to people, I occasionally get someone who observes that I tend to describe their behavior in anthropomorphic descriptions, to which I plead guilty. I can’t help it. There is so much in their behavior. Hilariously, they are actually greedy! Part of it is when they get food, they fly away with purpose, in a straight line, beating their wings that would make you think they were being pursued by a bird of prey. But they aren’t...and when I watch them do this, I get the very human impression that when they get a peanut and fly off like that, they are actually...absconding with their purloined food! So it kind of does make me feel just a little they might be prey to greed.
But it isn’t that absconding behavior that made me think they experienced greed.
It is when I figured out I could get Blue Jays to behave in very un-birdlike behavior if I threw a Bluejay two peanuts of nearly exactly the same size and shape. I observed that if I threw out to a Blue Jay watching me two peanuts of very different sizes, it will unfailingly go to the obviously larger peanut every single time without fail.
An interesting variant on this is to throw out the smaller peanut wait a second and then toss out the bigger peanut. Blue Jays are so ready to get a peanut, that when you throw one, they unhesitatingly make a beeline to it. Often, they have the smaller peanut already in their mouth, and when they see the bigger one land, they drop the smaller one and immediately go for the larger one. But what I find so hilarious is the way the drop the smaller peanut...I swear, it looks like they spit it out with a resentful prejudice, as if to say “WTF? Did you really think I would pass up THAT peanut for THIS one?” They don’t just just drop the peanut, they spit it, and I think if I could hear the sound as they spit it, it would sound like “PAH!”
So I tried an experiment-I threw out two peanuts that were as close in size as I could get them. The Blue Jay would hop up to one, and pick it up. Then, he would drop it, and go pick up the other one. I have seen a Blue Jay go back and forth between two peanuts up to six times before choosing one, like an old miser who can’t make up his mind between two small nuggets of gold that appear indistinguishable. It is almost the mindset “They look the same. But one HAS to be bigger than the other. And I need to know which one!”
And once in a while, when I amuse myself by tossing two peanuts to see how they react, a Blue Jay will take a different approach. Instead of taking one, it decides it is going to take both of them. They try like hell, gagging to get a whole peanut down into its gorge, which is fine if it is a sunflower seed, not so much with a peanut. But they try! And it occasionally succeeds, but then it cannot figure out how to grab the other peanut. They try in vain to pick it up as they gag on the one already in their throat, and it affects the way their beak works! I have even seen one disgorge the peanut and gorge down the other one, thinking perhaps they can work it with that one down in its gullet! Most of the time, they finally give up and fly away. And sometimes there is one who manages to grab the second peanut and fly away with it.
There was one time where that Blue Jay was getting so frantic trying to grab that second peanut that it ended up simply impaling the second peanut on its beak and flying away with it like that!
Funny I used to find them so annoying, and now I find them fascinating.
As I began paying close attention to them, I realized they are different behaviorally from other birds. (Blue Jays are like Crows, part of the Corvid family, the “smart” ones...) I realized that apart from that screetch, they actually make sounds that are quite nice, very melodious, pleasant calls. They have what is called a “Pump Handle” or “Squeaky Gate” call that is fun to hear, and they use it in territorial disputes with other Blue Jays. If you watch them, they bob their body up and down as they do it, and it gives them a rather goofy air!
When I feed them peanuts in the shell I make a clicking sound (six quick clicks as I snap my tongue from the roof of my mouth) and the Blue Jays, sometimes up to a dozen, know there are peanuts coming, and and they are all watching closely to see where I throw them. There are often up to six squirrels on he ground at the feeder at the same time, and the jays and squirrels compete for the peanuts. So the Jays and squirrels are all frozen, looking to see which direction I throw the peanut in (I do one at a time) and when I toss it, the race is on.
I try to toss them so the Jays can get there first, but they have to be bold. If they hesitate, they are at risk for being bitten by the squirrel, because the squirrels take this quite personally, and the Jays know it. But the bolder ones, even if it is close, will swoop in a split second before the squirrel can get there in a full run, peck the peanut up their beak, and fly off with their booty where they perch on a branch and smash the peanut repeatedly against a branch until the peanut shell opens up and they can get the good stuff inside! Usually, I have enough peanuts on each session to give every Jay a chance to get one, and they usually do. If another Jay or a squirrel gets the peanut first, they look up to see where I throw the next one...:)
I have begun to recognize them individually, which is kind of hard, but if you observe closely, it can be done.
I have one named “Bell Curve” because it isn’t that bright. I throw a peanut down, and it cocks its head and looks at me, then looks at the peanut, then at me quizzically, but another Jay or squirrel swoops in and gets it, and then Bell Curve looks back at me. Not too bright.
There is another one I call Black Crest because he has very prominent black markings that go from his face all the way around to the back of his crest and color the entire back black, which is prominent. Black Crest is very bold, and when I throw the peanut, he meets it while it is bouncing around on the ground like a football player trying to recover an onside kick!
Blue Jays really do have a dark side, though. I watched one murder a sparrow. Really. It wasn’t for food, and there was something quite deliberate and sadistic about it. I couldn’t stand the piteous sound the sparrow was making as the blue jay pecked away at it for about fifteen minutes (initially I had no idea what that horrible sound was) so I decided I had to end it because I couldn’t work.)
I walked outside, and as I walked around the corner towards the feeder, I could see the blue jay standing on the sparrow, deliberately pecking. It looked up and saw me, and as I walked closer, it took one more peck, then flew away.
The sparrow had its eyes pecked out, and oddly, there was sparrow blood all over its head. I guess those little birds didn’t even seem like they had blood in them. But it was quivering and making noises, so I just put it out of its misery with the heel of my shoe.
Seriously, there was a specific sense of malice on the part of that Blue Jay. It was almost as if it had a vendetta against that sparrow for something, and was making sport of killing it because it LIKED killing it with malice. Never thought I would anthropomorphize an animal like that, but I couldn’t explain it any other way.
When the jay saw me, it took one, last...defiant peck. There was a feeling of “How do you like those apples, you effing sparrow piece of crap?”
Lots of buzzards. Plenty of road kill.
My wife has thrown herself into it with a vengeance since she retired! I love it. I get to enjoy it!
Cool-we have Blue Herons up here, and it is bizarre in the spring, they have this swampy area near a highway, with a tree sticking up out of the water here and there, and on top of all of them are these nests of sticks that look like they have Teradactyls standing in them!
I’m also in southeast Arizona, very rural. We have all the birds you mention — oodles of doves, quail, house finches, black throated sparrows, etc. The orioles — hooded and Bullock’s — and woodpeckers — gila and ladderback — are busy raising their young. I feed a couple of roadrunners each day; they’re a hoot. The most exotic bird I’ve seen is a gorgeous blue grosbeak. And the hummingbirds, of course!
Mockingbirds singing this morning. Also bluejays and robins in my trees. Egrets in the ditches looking for food. Doves perching along the wires beside the road.
Love your backyard! Gorgeous White birch and looks like a willow .. maybe corkscrew?
On our back deck we have two seed feeders and two hummingbird feeders
I’m not really sure what Al of the visitors are but do know the cardinals
Do want to get a bird ID booklet for NC
I shared your thread with the Trump Train thread
I envy you-I live in a ranch-land development built in 1960 with all these ranches that are exactly alike-three varieties, small, medium, and large!
We have a medium one. Quarter acre. But we put a nice fence all around us, and my wife turned it into a little paradise that I love.
The neighborhood is dead quiet at night, and sometimes when I am out late, I can faintly hear the train horn about five miles away, then at midnight, I hear the distant tolling of the Clock Tower in our downtown, 12 chimes for midnight.
I’ll bet you don’t have nearly the light noise where you are, either. I love looking at the night sky, but there is a lot of light. It is awesome to see the Milky Way.
Well...speaking of wildlife, I DO hear a large pack of coyotes nearby just now. They are making a fearful racket.
My wife and I visited that area a few years back and spent a week on a ranch-we both loved it! You folks have some beautiful nature out there!
"PhoneSkope makes all sorts of adapters for different binoculars and different phones.
Beautiful back yard!!
We live in the desert, between Phoenix and Tucson. We see lots of quail, roadrunners, mourning doves ... along with rabbits, hares, coyotes, ground squirrels, poisonous frogs, and all kinds of other desert wildlife.
But dang, that back yard of yours! Lush.
Love seeing Eagles!
My wife and I vacationed north of Boothbay Harbor in Maine for a few years, and we had a great cottage right on the rocks!
We had two eagles every day that perched in a large fir tree about 10 yards from our deck, and called out to their fledgeling eagles!
I have never seen a flock of cranes!
This year, for the first time, I’ve seen Bald Eagles, and even Condors that have flown over us so close I could almost count their wing feathers. I saw one Bald Eagle swoop down out of the sky and snatch a fish right out of the water.
This seems to be an off year for us here in Eastern KY. We have a few hummingbirds, but I think some of our regulars have gone to that big feeder in the sky (they only live 2-3 years). A pair of Canada geese checked out the nesting opportunities earlier this spring. We also have a wood duck population that usually parades the little ones down the creek next to our house. In the past we’ve had a pair of young owls, just kicked out of the nest, complaining about how unfair life is. It’s a nice area for bird life, but we do miss all the bluebirds we used to get in MA.
Ah! You ARE a real birder! And...a “Prothonotary Warbler”.
Are you aware of the role that bird played in a major news story in this country back around 1949-1950?
I never knew that!
Yeah. Maybe hit 90 today. Not humid.
Sitting under a spreading California Live Oak to cool off was pleasant. The dying grasses on the last mile of trail to the top of the hill were 4 ft to 5 ft tall and the trail was completely overgrown. You couldn't even find the trail in most places. A Ranger told me later that the crews are working on fire suppression tasks now. He said this is an exceptional grass year because of the wet spring and alternating heat and cool weather.
In the June heat midday, the wildlife is smart and resting in the shade. We are entering prime rattlesnake season with the heat - fortunately I didn't see any. I spotted a gopher snake last week. They are not venomous but have learned to shake and twitch their tales like a rattlesnake. They will rattle tips of their tails in the dried weeds to even sound like a rattlesnake! It's tick season now, too, but I haven't spotted any on me.
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