Scrub Jays Come Bursting Out The Hedge!

Ever since I lost Baby Blue two years ago, I've been setting out bird seed in the back alley to help make the neighborhood more bird-friendly, and maybe encourage other Scrub Jays to make another attempt at nesting in my back yard.

I've been attracting all sorts of urban-type birds - flotillas of sparrows arrive in the morning, followed by doves (midday), pigeons (afternoon), and crows (evening) - but given their large numbers in Sacramento, Scrub Jays have been surprisingly scarce at my feeding station.

Nevertheless, lately I noticed a couple of Scrub Jays making occasional visits. I was happy to see them there.

Last week, I thought I heard baby birds, but convinced myself they were next door, or at least somewhere out-of-sight.

Leaving my back yard gate this morning, I was startled by a panicked juvenile Scrub Jay falling through the hedge and landing nearly at my feet. Unlike Baby Blue, who I rescued at a much earlier stage of development, this bird was nearly adult-sized, but was clearly inexpert at flying. The bird ended up in my yard, where fortunately no cat is to be found, and was followed by a watchful and concerned parent. I set out some bird seed on the ground, and left for twenty minutes.

When I returned, the juvenile was gone - he must have figured out how to fly well enough to escape - but I was baffled how he had ended up there. The only way I could figure out how a juvenile fledgling had ended up in the hedge was if the nest was already in the hedge. But surely, I would have noticed a Scrub Jay nest in the hedge long ago. After all, Scrub Jays aren't secretive birds, and I'm not THAT dense to have completely missed their presence.

Call me clueless.

Suddenly I realized the hedge was fairly bursting with Scrub Jays! Amazingly, a family of Scrub Jays had set up a nest in my hedge, virtually in the same place the Scrub Jay nest had been two years ago (I wonder if they are the same parents?) Somehow, the birds managed to do all this without attracting my attention. Now, several baby birds were all learning to fly at the same time, and their presence could no longer be concealed even from the densest sort of humans (such as myself).

I spent the afternoon watching several Scrub Jays flying to and from the hedge and the 'fountain', where a small but rather nasty-looking remnant of water provided sustenance. The parents grabbed seeds and bugs and repeatedly fed their hungry charges. The parents also harassed squirrels that entered the yard and generally policed the perimeter.

The next several days are a dangerous time for the inexpert baby fliers, and there are cats in the yards to the left and right of me. Still, the encouraging success of the parents to date makes me optimistic. If these parents are the same parents as two years ago, they've clearly learned a lot, and aren't making the same mistakes. Working together, we might succeed in emptying the entire nest without incident!