Evening star., 1946-10-21
This and That
BIZ Charles E. Trace1DeH.

"Oh," cried the pretty girl, eyou
should have seen the five beautiful blue
jays in our apple tree-all males!"
The fact, of course, is that no one can
tell male jays from female jays.
They all look alike.
Young jays have narrower and less
distinct black bars, and far less black
on them.
Usually these fine birds go in family
Of five or six, the parents and three or
four babies
Every neighborhood in the suburbs
these bands, whose inroads are noisy
and excited.
Mostly the visits are early in the day,
often on a regular schedule.
One of the best features of bird feed
ing during the cold months is the daily
lookout for the jay groups.
They do not eat much, nor do they as
a rule bother the other birds, although
the latter always fly up into the bushes
at their approach.
X Il
Put out peanuts, If you want fun with
the jays.
Born thieves, they like to carry of
peanuts to hide at distance.
Sometimes they put them in clefts Of
trees, but mostly like to bury them under
leaves, at which task they are as expert
as squirrels.
Probably 1t is unfair to these fellows
to label them thieves. The group OF
birds to which they belong has pro-
pensities toward collecting things, let
us say.
Both jays and crows like to pick up
bright objects. The small Canada jay,
called the whiskey Jack, is a great col
lector.
He is SO adept at it that he wins the
admiration of the rough woodsmen who
gave him his common name.
Our own jay is not in his class when
it comes to collecting things. He does
not go in SO much for bright objects He
Is utilitarian, liking best to get peanuts,
seeds and other food which he believes
will last until needed.
Usually he is pretty canny about this,
taking his finds to some distance, then
burying them without his usual clamor.
But other birds find them, SO that he
is an unwilling philanthropist, whether
he knows it or not.
No doubt he saves the lives Of many
smaller birds every year.
Chickadees, titmice, white breasted
nuthatches, even woodpeckers, are in
debted to him.
K X X X
Beautiful, industrious, fun-loving-
what more could one ask of a bird?
Yet is a sad fact that many persons,
especially those who are new to any
steady study of bird life, are likely to be
against him at first.
They say that he eats the babies of
other birds, and especially their eggs.
This is true, to some extent, but as is
usual in such cases, not true to the ex-
tent that these jay haterS would have
us believe.
It is impossible, we believe, for any
one to watch jays faithfully without in
the end taking up the cudgels for them.
This is one of our wintering birds.
Others are the bob-white, barred owl,
screech owl, great horned owl, hairy
woodpecker, downy woodpecker, red
bellied woodpecker, red-headed wood
pecker, flicker, crow, fish crow, starting,
English sparrow, meadow lark, gold
finch, song sparrow, cardinal, towhee,
migrant shrike, mockingbird, Carolina
wren, white-breasted nuthatch, tit
mouse and chickadee.
With these must be placed birds that
come here from the North for the
winter. These include the purple finch,
the yellow bellied, sapsucker, the white
white -throated sparrow, tree sparrow,
throated sparrow, tree sparrow, slate
colored junco (snowbird), fox sparrow
winter wren, brown creeper, red-breasted
nuthatch, golden-crowned kinglet, ruby
crowned kinglet and the hermit thrush
Most of us will never see the latter un-
less we explore some OF the more
secluded portions Of Rock Greek Park.