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blue jay love peanuts why do i never see the steller Jay?

9 years ago

here is some blue jay picture yes having fun and any other ideas are welcome

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Comments (14)

Lorna1949
Original Author
9 years ago
I place them on the table this time what to think of next
bossyvossy
9 years ago
Maybe they haven't yet discovered your buffet. I don't follow birds but I hv observed this behavior w/ butterflies and hummers. The opposite is also true in my garden : I stopped using a feeder that leaked and attracted ants to a place that was troublesome, hummers constantly visited that spot for two years after I stopped filling w/ nectar.
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I had the nicest blue jay encounter yesterday.
Q
Comments (12)
Leslie, To get full enjoyment of the cedar waxwings, you need to watch them after they've eaten fruit that has fermented over the winter. Let's just say they get tipsy and have trouble walking, much less flying. It is pretty entertaining. Most of the birds we have that I cherish most only really started coming in large numbers in drought years. Once they figured out we were a reliable food and water source, they began visiting regularly. The worst the drought (or the colder the winter weather), the more birds we have. My favorite bird sightings since moving here include the two golden eagles I watched for weeks in the spring and summer of 2004---they finally flew right over our house together one day while our friend, Ken, was here working on the roof of the barn so he got to see them too. I had mostly seen them when I walked the dogs on a road that runs between us and the river, so having them fly right over our place was real convenient. Other favorites are the Chuckwalla's Widow, which you hear more than you see, and the Whip Poor Will---common in our childhood but rare now. The bird we see least on our property but all over the neighborhood, running the roads naturally, is the roadrunner. They can forage for all kinds of food so rarely come here to eat or drink. That means that on the rare occasion a roadrunner is here in the yard eating or drinking, you know that the drought is just about as bad as it possibly can get. We have a lot of wooded acreage and it is full of birds. We get woodpeckers, flickers, nuthatches, brown creepers, phoebes, bluebirds....just all sorts of interesting birds. I've had my fill of snakes for the year already, in or out of trees. Last week I had a close encounter with 3 different snakes, and one of our cats is acting sick and listless as if he was bitten by a venomous snake. For a few days I wasn't sure he was going to make it, but he seemed to show improvement today. The snakes seem terribly prolific this year and I'm not happy about that. Dawn
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Blue Jay Go Away
Q
Comments (10)
Hello All, I am new, but I will do what I usually do and jump in with both feet! I am happy that you are a peaceful man, hope that this helps. I don't know of a blue jay repellant, but I can offer some information for you in addition to that already provided by the others. I also came up with a couple of alternative bird you could dislike instead of the jay. One alternative is the Europian Starling, introduced by man, and began to spread over the whole country. They compete aggressively with native birds for nesting. Birds are in enough trouble from of loss of habitat from mankind. (you can prevent them from taking up residence in your birdhouses by making the entrance 1 1/2 " or less so they can't get inside the joint.) The Cowbird is another alternative to bluejay loathing. It sneaks into other bird's nests and lays it's eggs, making the other bird do all the work. The field guide called it parisitizing and the cowbird affects about 144 species altogether and some are threatened with extinction altogether. The cowbird is only doing what it has always done, only we changed the playing field and the combination is lethal. Back to the BlueJay. The jays fly around in courtship flocks in the spring follow the leader style and give a variety of calls. (acording to Stokes Field Guide these flocks are made up of several males and leading the way one female. When they land the males start bobbing raising their whole body up and down, while giving the "toolool" call. Good News, they are quiet during breeding. They also dive bomb hawks giving jay calls. I don't know if a "scarehawk" would work, it would scare off the other birds too and you don't want that. One more thing you could try, is to lure the jay to another area of your yard. The jay eats acorns, nuts, fruit, and it comes to feeders for sunflower seed and cracked corn. You could put sunflower seed (black oil I think) and cracked corn on a feeder away from your window. That might work. Good luck to you, I hope I wasn't too long winded for you all. Happy Birding! Bitsy In the end, I would say the best thing to do is to get some earplugs and find some common ground. You could even learn to not despise the jay.
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Wanting a blue jay, getting a grackle...
Q
Comments (9)
Kittysmith's vocal discription sounds like a European Starling to me. Those of us familiar with the Common Grackle know it's song is little more than the sound of a rusty hinge. Being human, there are definitely things that I don't care to have on my property. Right now the Japanese beetles are terrible, I can't remember a July without them. If I never see rats again it will be fine with me. European starlings and house sparrows are little more than feathered vermin. We can either discourage these birds and have a greatly improved environment or live in a "Polyanna" world, its a choice each one of us has to make. Sam
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Is it a bad idea to attract blue jays?
Q
Comments (42)
frmbritt - it's best if you start a new post/thread. You'll get more responses. Feeding birds can become a challenge when certain birds dominate your feeders. I struggle with this too (I get a lot of blackbirds). To prevent doves you need feeders they can't use. I could suggest a tube feeder with perches. The fat doves can't land on the perches. They also have tube feeders and suet feeders with cages around them. This prevents bigger birds from entering and allows smaller birds access (like a bluebird). The not so fun part is buying new/more feeders. I'm going thru this now.... Just when I thought I was good on feeders, now I'm buying caged feeders, and they aren't cheap.
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Lorna1949
Original Author
9 years ago
in my flower pot
Lorna1949
Original Author
9 years ago
my watering can I put a peanut there the squirrel got at the first one so had to put another one
Lorna1949
Original Author
9 years ago
put some in a bowl then he call some friend or family
Lorna1949
Original Author
9 years ago
here is another one I have a few more too bad you could not post many pictures in one post
claireplymouth z6b coastal MA
9 years ago
Wonderful pictures of a delightful bird!

You can post many pictures in one post if you store them on a photo-hosting site or use TinyPic.com.

FAQ: How do I include a photo in my post?

Claire
lazy_gardens
9 years ago
Steller's Jay might not be in your area, or they might not want to compete with blue jays.
goodfun58
9 years ago
Many thanks for posting the blue jay photos you guys. I love them
and I feed them peanuts daily but my camera does not work well...
so I really enjoy your photos.

Sue
Lorna1949
Original Author
9 years ago
I have a big mulberry tree in my backyard and lots of different bird come to eat them I don't need to put a bird feeder out for a good month of July and yes I do get lots of ants but when the berries are finish I wash the patio real good and by by ants
tmff
9 years ago
If you're seeing Baltimore Orioles, then it's not very likely you're within range of Steller's Jays.
ron45715
9 years ago
I could go all year without seeing a bluejay..but the minute I put out my peanut feeder....half a dozen appear out of nowhere. :)
ZachS. z5 Platteville, Colorado
9 years ago
Hi Lorna! I don't spend much time over here, just checking out the different forums (though, I'm thinking I should, you guys have some AWESOME pictures!) I typically stay on the "gardening side."

Not sure where you are Lorna, but around here (Colorado's Front Range, west of Denver) the Stellar's jays rarely come down out of the foothills and mountains, which are a few miles to the west of me. I saw a couple down here last year , but that was a BIG surprise to me! I had never seen them this low in elevation before, and they haven't been back since. I don't think they live east of the Rockies either, so, if you in that part of the country, they may not be in your area!

BEAUTIFUL pictures! How do you get such fine detail and sharpness?!
sandyslopes z5 n. UT
9 years ago
Great pictures of your Jays. Steller's Jay is harder to get a pic of around here, too, but I managed to get some okay ones. These are taken through a window. I wish they were clearer.

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