Missing a tail

Years ago at our old place, we had an incident where a chicken was nearly caught by a coyote. She managed to escape, but at the price of losing – literally – her entire tail. You can read about it here.

It seems a similar fate has befallen a Steller's jay that hangs around the bird feeder. He (or she, I can't tell the difference) is missing its tail, either from a coyote or some other predator.

Poor thing looks like half a jay.

On the other hand, it's alive – which is more than can be said for any encounter with a predator.

What a tale it must have!

Drama at the bird feeder

I started filling the bird feeder a couple weeks ago. I only fill it during colder months, as during summer and fall I don't young birds to grow up thinking there will always be free food at the feeder, and thus never learn to find it themselves.

Collectively I refer to the small birds as LBJs (Little Brown Jobbies), a universal term my grad school ornithology professor used, since sometimes they kinda all look similar and can be difficult to identify at a glance.

But unlike years past, when small birds dominated the seeds (Cassin's finches, pine siskins, goldfinches, lesser goldfinches, Oregon juncos, etc.), this year larger birds are jockeying for position. The most frequent visitors are Steller's jays, California quail, and ringed turtle doves.

Among the bigger birds, by far my favorite is Steller's jays. They're showy and quarrelsome and greedy, but I enjoy them.

We're also inundated with ringed turtle doves.

Next, California quail.

We even had a starling, which is actually an infrequent sight.

And of course, when the bigger birds aren't around, flocks of LBJs gather.

What I've been noticing is the pecking order among these various species.

Pecking order: Starlings > doves.

Pecking order: Quail > Steller's jays.

Pecking order: Quail > doves.

Pecking order: Doves > Steller's jays.

Pecking order: Quail > doves.

Pecking order: Quail > Steller's jays.

Pecking order: Doves > LBJs. (Actually, everything > LBJs.)

What it seems to come down to is Starlings > quail > doves > Steller's jays > LBJs.

Bonus photos: Red-shafted flicker. They don't eat seeds, but spend a lot of time winkling bugs out of crevices.

I have mixed feelings about red-shafted flickers. They're showy and handsome birds, and most of the time they're harmless and even beneficial. But in our last home, their quest for bugs led them to do severe damage to the side of our house to the point where we had to have the whole siding replaced.

Because of that experience, whenever we hear a flicker pecking on our walls or roof, we do our best to chase it off before it can do any damage.

So there you go. That's all the drama at the bird feeder.

Feathers and fur

Lately I've been seeing a single Steller's jay hanging around.

Of the crow family, magpies are the most common around here. Once in a blue moon I'll notice a flock of gray jays flit about, and of course crows and ravens are common, but jays? Less so.

He was very bold and came quite close.

He actively pecked at this piece of frozen manure. I don't know if he found seeds or frozen larvae or something, but it certainly kept his attention for ten or fifteen minutes.

Less welcome was the sight of a coyote across the field from us.

We've all lost chickens to coyotes, and no one bears much love for them.

While there is a always thrill at seeing furred wildlife...

...nonetheless I waited until he was good and gone before I let the chickens out of their coop.