To Catch A Scrub Jay

Scrub Jays are wily beasts. And the Island Scrub Jay is no exception to this rule. I’ve been led (I believe) on purpose to old nests in Florida… and similar events have also happened out here on Santa Cruz. Ben was watching a pair of birds when he spotted the female with lining material. She began to make a flight, most likely to the nest, and then spotted him. So she stopped in the top of the nearest tree and very carefully arranged the lining… in the leaves. There was no platform. Then she looked at him as if to say, “See, here’s my nest.” Needless to say, he was not convinced, so continued watching the birds. A little later the female led him to an obviously very old nest, (cobwebs and all), sat down in it, shuffled around a bit, and looked at him again… “Ok, here’s my nest.” He found the real nest later that morning.

Island Scrub Jays are also just as addicted to “the peanut” as the Florida Jays. This comes in handy when we need to capture the birds for banding purposes. Just over a week ago we needed to capture a few Jays, so we broke out the peanuts and the traps. Our very high tech traps consist of 5 sided boxes with a door on the top made of wire mesh. We prop the box up on a stick, attached to a string, and then place a very enticing pile of peanuts under the trap. It takes a while for the Jays to get comfortable with the whole “new item” in their peanut acquisition, (if they go for it at all.) Throwing a few peanuts closer and closer to the trap gets them a little more comfortable, and eventually, they may be hopping hesitantly under the trap, quickly snapping a peanut up in their bill, then hopping out as fast as they can. If you wait longer, they start to get comfortable. When the bird starts to take its time in the trap, picking out a nice peanut from the pile, you’ve got it in the bag (literally.) At least that’s the process that finally worked for me when I captured the Kennedy female, (I like to call her Jackie.) The next day when I went out to check on her she refused to take a peanut from me…

The process didn’t work for the Obama male, (Barack of course). He was not fooled by the box propped up on the stick. Refused to go in there, even when I wouldn’t give him any peanuts otherwise. He just left me there, holding the string. So we tried another method. Pulled out a mist net, an iPod, and portable speakers. Set up the net in the streambed in the front of his territory, then pulled up a track of Western Scrub Jays alarm calling and the female territorial “rattle call.” Worked like a charm. Obama came bombing in, looking all kinds of angry, wondering where the invaders were. Instead, he was greeted by us, tossing him peanuts near the net. He eagerly hopped to the ground and started selecting the best nut, when Ben rushed him, hoping to flush him into the net. No luck. He spotted the net, mid freak out, and gave a few good pumps of his wings and rose right up over the top. The next few attempts at flushing him in also failed. He knew the net was there and there was no tricking him anymore. We never did catch Obama that trapping bout. We got close to catching Michelle, but I just wasn’t patient enough, didn’t wait until she was comfortable enough to pull the string. She escaped. I learned my lesson, and caught Jackie the next day.

Here’s Michelle giving her head a good scratch about a week after the trapping attempts…