We made it to the season goal of 100 birds... We surpassed it, blew it away actually. As of November 8th, the end of the crew's trapping season, we caught 125 Island Scrub Jays. Highlights of the bunch (for me) included many territorial birds in the Portezuela and Coches Prietos field plots. The best capture came yesterday. The territorial male of the Polaris territory in Coches had been eluding capture for almost a year. Baited foot snares didn't work. The peanut and box trap did, but he then pulled a Houdini and escaped out of the bird bag before removal for banding. Needless to say, this bird had been around the block. He didn't trust us anymore. Although he still liked peanuts. It was time for drastic measures. Our last resort was the bow-net. (The bow-net consists of two U-shaped metal arms with a net hung loosely between them. The net is spring loaded. To set it up you fold it in half and place the loose net up near the now stacked arms. To spring the trap you pull a string attached to a trigger that releases a clamp holding the two arms together. The springs do the rest of the work. And it's fast. And scary. So we only use it as a last resort.)Katie and I set up the net in some grass in Polaris' territory, then covered the arms with clumps of grass we pulled up. We carefully placed some peanuts in the sweet spot in the top center of the trap. Then we set about luring the Polaris male in. It took a while to find him, but he couldn't refuse the free peanuts. Everything was going smoothly until he noticed our intent watching of him. (and insistence that he take peanuts from a particular spot in the grass.) He was suspicious. So Katie and I employed another tactic: act like we don't care what he's doing, and we're not paying attention. This worked well enough to get him into the trapping area, but as soon as we moved back into trapping position he backed off and watched us from the nearest buckwheat. At this point Katie decided to move off and try finding the Ursa pair across the road, and I decided to make the trigger string longer. As I was kneeling down on the ground, knotting the strings together, I could see the Polaris male deciding that I was obviously preoccupied. He began making trips into the trap, caching peanuts, and coming back for more. This was the opportunity. I remained kneeling, with my body sideways to the bow-net, giving the appearance that I was still busy, and pulled the trigger the next time he went back for peanuts. It was a success. The unbanded Polaris male is now BRB/AY. He will never trust a free peanut handout again I'm sure.
Castro, our resident front yard Island Scrub Jay, really likes to forage for loose peanuts in our field truck, the Aphelocomobile. Every time we pull into the drive from a day in the field he waits until we've vacated the truck, then hops down from the nearest Eucalyptus branch, onto the rails, and into the truck. We can see him hopping around in the backseat, poking in the cracks in the cushions, and frequently making trips back to the edge of the open driver's side window to peck at his reflection in the side view mirror. (We're not sure that he recognizes himself or not, or why he seems to take such pleasure in pecking at his reflection.)
Photo credit Ben, (spring 2009)
Colin had the idea a few weeks ago to play a prank on Castro. He wanted to hide in the front seat under some jackets, wait for Castro to hop into the truck, then pop up, scaring Castro out of the truck. The first pranking attempt was carried out by Colin, but for some reason, Castro didn't show up that day. The next attempt was mine. I piled some jackets on top of me, crunched down into the foot box, then waited. It didn't take long. I heard the smack of feet and jangle of bands as Castro hopped down onto the truck. Then a little closer as I heard him land on the open window. Then a hollow thump as he hopped down onto the driver's seat. I threw off the jackets to see Castro jump up in surprise, quickly regain his composure, and fly out the open window he came in. He didn't go far. Just landed on the rail in the back of the truck and looked at me inquisitively through the back window. The next day he was back in the truck again. Obviously the little shock he received wasn't enough to keep him from searching for peanuts in the Aphelocomobile.
Today I said goodbye to Krusty, Bill and Hillary Clinton, and Castro and Dahlia up at the cabins. Today we leave on the boat for the mainland... until the next season.
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