Birds In The 'Hood

One of the benefits of having the house I have with the view from my kitchen window onto my fairly large backyard is I get to see all kinds of bird activity. I have had a large, portable bird feeder on my deck for many years and that feeder has attracted a wide assortment of winged creatures.

In today's episode of Birds In The 'Hood, I will tell you about a blue jay. But first, let me say that this Spring season, in addition to the regular visits from an assortment of 'normal' birds - finches, starlings, robins, even brown-headed cow birds - I have two birds I have never seen here before, a male and a female cardinal. The male is the bright red one; the female a much-more muted red. You may have read my Facebook postings about the two killdeer birds, male and female, that I assumed were tending to their newly-created nest in my inoperable recirculating stream - though, after learning more from a helpful biologist, I am no longer so sure; that is why I mentioned the brown-headed cow birds.

Today, I had the bounty, short-lived as it was, of seeing another unusual, never-before-seen-in-my-backyard bird.

I saw a bluejay. Its visit to the area of my bird feeder took only about 15 seconds or so, but there it was. Large and blue.

Unfortunately for the jay, some of the much-smaller starlings have become very territorial about my bird feeder; two of them almost instantly ganged up on the jay and chased it away, first to the nearby tree that sits in my backyard, then, almost as immediately, completely out of the neighborhood. I have not seen it return and doubt it will.

I also just saw a huge crow, carrying what appeared to be a baby rabbit from a recently-disturbed burrow it had just caught, being chased away from the backyard by a much smaller bird.

I guess the "local" birds do not appreciate and will not tolerate uninvited visitors to my backyard.