Scrub Jays Make A Home

I had lost contact with the world of Scrub Jays, since 2007, when I tried to raise a fledgling. Part of the trouble was their numbers seemed to decline locally. (West Nile virus is a terrible thing.) So, I accustomed myself to feeding birds, in general, every day: Pigeons, Sparrows, Mourning Doves, Crows, and some scattered Juncos, but not Scrub Jays very often.

About a month ago, I wondered if something might be up around the SE corner of the house. I went home from the 24th Street Theater during "42nd Street" intermission to use my bathroom (I live close enough that I can do that), and I startled a strange cat who had been lurking there. The cat panicked and left. As far as I knew, there are no cats next-door anymore, or really, anywhere around in the immediate neighborhood, so why would a cat be hanging around there? Granted, it's a nice place for cats, but still!

Then, about two weeks ago, I noticed a persistent Scrub Jay at the feeding spot. Every day, one Scrub Jay amongst a bunch of Pigeons. It looked like a lost international traveler at a train station!

Scrub Jays are omnivorous, so seeds make good food, but still, they prefer bugs, spiders, and worms to seeds. So, persistence at the feeding spot seemed to suggest a lack of food, or an unusually-large appetite. Now, why would a Scrub Jay have an unusually-large appetite?

Then, on Saturday, about 5 p.m., I heard the unmistakable sound of baby birds coming from a completely-unexpected location, under the eaves of the house at the SE corner (pictured above). That area, at the top of ivy snaking upwards on old telephone wires, technically belongs to me, but it looms over the neighbor's yard, so I don't go over there very much. (Indeed, I was surprised to discover that the tree in the yard, which the neighbors stubbornly insist belongs to me, abruptly died, and so now has to be cut down. But I don't want to do something that drastic so close to the nest until the babies leave.)

I am so surprised! I was spending so much time in Davis, with "Urinetown" and then "Oklahoma!", that I didn't notice the Scrub Jays move in. And I didn't hear the babies either. And I'm sure the Scrub Jays think that's just fine: the less attention, the better. As long as this situation of few or no nearby cats holds, with reliable seeds as a food margin, it's a great place to raise Scrub Jays.

I've been putting out more food for the birds, especially hard-boiled egg (the perfect bird food), but they haven't taken it up yet. These Scrub Jays appear to be pretty independent.

This morning, at dawn, I looked out my bedroom window. In the driveway, a single, solitary Scrub Jay listened for bugs in the unappetizing dirt. I've seen it in the past: for some reason those driveway bugs are irresistible!