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Donna Kaitangian
Carlsbad, CA
I have lived at this house for 17 years and as long as I can remember, from when I did start feeding the birds, there has been a pair of scrub jays that frequent the feeders and have learned (or taught us) to wait fairly patiently for peanuts in the morning and sometimes evening. We put them in the flower pots, on other objects and sometimes they fall behind or below something and these ingenious little buggers, find EVERY one! This particular pair, which I suspect are not the original birds, one will squawk, but the other one just does a little “squeak”, so I call them Squawkbox and Mumbles, Mumbles seems to be missing a toe or it’s deformed, but he doesn’t let that slow him down. I feel that is the male because Squawkbox is a little smaller in body. I have a very nice variety of birds that come year round and make sure they have plenty of seed, juice for the hummers, jelly for the Orioles while they are here, and water. There are several “regulars” such as these jays, 3 mourning doves that are always around, probably 20 to 30 Mannikin finches, and many, many more. The hummers are a favorite, and the quail which haven’t been coming as much these last two year. One of my favorite pastimes and I even bought a birdcam last year!
My submission for "shades of blue", one of our pair, the male I think, of scrub jays waiting for his daily donation of peanuts. They are very regular and also have quite a technique for getting seed from the feeders. Beautiful pair.
Feeding birds in a 2’x3′ platform feeder for past 29 years in North Pomfret, Vermont. Fill this feeder twice daily and, needless to say, have many birds every day. While certain groups such as Evening Grossbeaks have waxed and waned over the years, this fall the birds have virtually disappeared! A filled feeder was lasting days with only a few blue jays, nuthatches and chicadees appearing. Its been suggested that warm fall has lead to food boom in the woods but this is not normal. Comments?
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