Our recent past president and author of our “BirdWords” articles has a new book out! It is appropriately titled “BirdWords from Blue Oak Country” and can be found here. Dan was an educator by trade until his recent retirement, and it shows. His incredible wit and command of the english language reveals itself throughout the book. So does his love of birds and the environment.
As an example of Dan’s pros, I would like to give you just a taste of the beginning of his article “Great Egrets” – “Camouflage clearly makes survival sense. But nature doesn’t settle for just one kind of sense. Out along river shorelines and on the damp fields of winter, great egrets are blatantly visible, as uncamouflaged as possible in head-to-tail white. They’re large. They’re out in the open. They’re plainly visible. Shouldn’t they be dead? A hundred years ago they almost were.”
The book presents in chronological order of winter, spring, summer and fall. It not only gives you specific information on several species of birds but also contains information on Christmas Bird Counts, bird migration, outdoor cats, how to begin birding, plants for birds, and importantly, the environment.
Please join our webmaster as he highlights some of his favorite bird photos from the last fifteen years. Don’t be surprised if there may be a few short videos as well. This is the second part of his presentation.
Join us as we celebrate the annual Return of the Salmon Festival at Coleman National Fish Hatchery, 24411 Coleman Fish Hatchery Rd. in Anderson. This family-friendly event is free to the public and will have over 50 booths with information and activities. View salmon spawning operations, a salmon aquarium, natural resource information booths and much more. Wintu Audubon will be there with a booth, handing out information on birds and the chapter and engaging families with hands-on activities.
If you can spare a couple hours to help staff our booth, please contact Education Chair Tricia Ford at triciathebirdnerd@gmail.com.
Larry Jordan has been enthralled with birds since he spotted a Burrowing Owl in his Oak Run driveway on the way home one evening over 30 years ago. He didn’t know what the bird was so he bought his first field guide and opened up a whole new world of wonder. Since that evening he has been involved in several endeavors to protect birds and advance the joy of birding. He started his own birding blog in 2007 and also posted to the well known 10000 Birds blog. Larry joined Wintu Audubon Society, became the webmaster for the organization, and began photographing birds in 2008. Please join our webmaster as he highlights some of his favorite bird photos from the last fifteen years. Don’t be surprised if there may be a few short videos as well.
California Scrub-jays are the West Coast, lower-altitude version of the widespread jay tribe, which itself is part of the corvid family, the global group that includes crows, magpies, and similar large-billed, intelligent, opportunistic birds. Our scrub-jays are oak woodland specialists.
Like most jays in North America, the California Scrub-jay wears a lot of blue–although, following the geography of European colonization, only the Eastern bird wears the name “Blue Jay.” Our scrub-jay has a rounded head, not crested, and a blue topside with a partial necklace extending into pale gray underparts; it’s a well-dressed, thoroughly attractive bird. The jays are imposing–large, bold, and inquisitive. They often patrol their neighborhoods in brash family gangs.
Their bills are particularly hefty, allowing the versatility to acquire and eat a range of foods–fruits, nuts, and a variety of meats. Those formidable bills empower a proprietary demeanor, and seem to intimidate smaller birds, who scatter from feeders when the scrub-jays arrive and watch helplessly when the larger birds dine on their eggs or nestlings. The unstated threat that the scrub-jay’s powerful bill poses seems to reprise the Pancho and Lefty lyric: He wore his gun outside his pants, for all the honest world to feel. They are wild animals, after all, and live by a brutal code.
Some steal the acorns their companions have hidden for winter consumption. That behavior in turn seems to affect their social attitude. Scrub-jay thieves, like those among their cousin crows and other species, seem suspicious; they wait to hide their own acorns until they are alone and unobserved.
With their mates the scrub-jays appear reliable. Nearly 90% of them remain paired from one year to the next. Both adults help build their nest, and they often feed each other as well as their young.
Come winter they typically gang up and hold their territories, often with loud sorties of spread-winged flight through the neighborhood understory. Their flocking, their size and robust demeanor, their power and assertiveness, all seem to keep the scrub-jays going. Until the 1930’s California fruit and nut growers, thinking it would protect their crops, organized large-scale shoots of these birds. Still, the scrub-jays have persisted, and maintain a stable population.
