I was banding with Colin at one of our "offsites," Muddy Hollow, sometime last week, when we caught it. I was the lucky one to be on the net run that discovered the bird in the net. We don't catch them very often, even though there's lots around due to them being too smart, and the fact that the nets we use are more like a hammock to them, than something they get tangled in. This bird had it's feet wrapped up pretty well though, which took some doing on my part to get it to let go. Definitely much bigger in the hand than a Florida Scrub Jay. I can't imagine how much bigger the Island Scrub Jays are going to be that I'll be handling in April. Catching that Scrub Jay at Muddy Hollow made up for the kind of crappy morning it had been shaping up to be... a tangled net and snapped rope made opening less than a smooth operation. And the rain that would start, soak us, then stop just as we were about to close nets, was also an annoyance. After the Jay it was all better. And it stopped raining.
But when it does rain, it pours so they say. The next day banding at Palo I went on a net run that turned out to be rather ridiculous. 9 birds in one run... which is a lot for the winter. And two of those birds were Stellar's Jays. I banded and processed them both, (after taking care of the numerous little birds that should be processed first... the bigger birds can handle being captured for longer). I still have little scrapes on my right hand where the Jays liked to grab onto my thumb, or any fingers within their grasp, while I took a look at them. When I released them out behind the banding lab they each yelled at me as they flew off. There was a Stellar's Jay the next day who was hanging around the banding lab who would yell at me every time I stepped out for a net run. I wouldn't be surprised if it was one of the two I banded the day before. I've known Jays to remember individuals.
On a topic other than my obsession with Corvids... I went for a short hike today in Samuel P. Taylor state park to see some Redwoods. It was very peaceful in the trees. I could hear a creek running down below, and flushed up 4 Varied Thrush along the way. (They were interested, but not convinced by my imitation of their call...) Where the sun could actually work its way through the dense trees you could see long strands of spider webs, lit up like filaments of gold from branch to branch. The trees were pretty much all second growth Redwoods, so none as big as what I'd see if I actually went to the Redwood National Park or Forest, or whatever, but there was one big one. It was called "the pioneer tree." (Which explains why the trail was the Pioneer Tree Trail. Which I failed to realize until I got to said tree.) The Pioneer Tree had a nice little sign in front of it talking about how old it probably was, etc... and at the end it said "go on in and check it out." Which took me by surprise. The tree had been hollowed out at the bottom by fire, so there was a huge cave you could walk right into. I of course checked it out. It felt a bit creepy at first. It was awfully dark in there. But once my eyes adjusted it was interesting to see the patterns in the wood, and how the tree had healed itself from its fire wounds. (Redwoods can do that apparently.)
Tomorrow is back to banding at Palo after a short Christmas break.
Here's a nice view of the Farallon Islands seen from a bike ride back from Bolinas one evening...
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