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Last summer (2006) I began spending more time in the backyard and occasionally noticed some gorgeous blue and gray birds. They typically came charging to the feeder, scattering all the resident sparrows and finches, gobbled up some seeds, then left as suddenly as they appeared. I mentioned them to a friend who lives a short distance away. He said there were several that visited his yard nearly every morning and frequently carried away a bowl full of roasted unsalted peanuts in the process. So on my next shopping trip, I stopped at the local Smart & Final and bought a 3 lb. bag. I tried leaving some in a bowl hanging from the Mulberry tree in the corner garden during the day for a few days. But none were taken when I brought them back in at night (to avoid a plague of rats and mice). Next, I tried tossing one in their direction when they came to the feeder. They seemed to know exactly what the peanuts were and immediately picked them up and carried them away. Patty and I began seeing how close we could entice them to come. In about a week there were usually two, and once, four individuals appearing every morning and snatching peanuts from about six feet away.

This warranted some research whereby we learned that these birds are Western Scrub Jays. Several sources mention their love of peanuts. I had been envious of a couple of people who appeared in one of those remodeling and landscaping shows on the Home & and Garden channel several years ago when they showed how friendly a jay was to the construction crew by hand feeding it. I wanted to do that!

Eventually it did happen. I had been offering peanuts all morning, first just holding one in my outstretched hand, palm up, then tossing it on the table. There were two jays participating, one slightly larger than the other. I just assumed the larger one was a male and the smaller one a female. He always got first dibs. They would usually begin by perching on the back of the love seat, then hop on the table, sneak up sideways while watching me and finally grab and fly. The smaller one startled me after two hours of this by skipping the table part completely, grabbing the peanut on the fly and flying away. She did this twice. I was so excited I had to tell Patty immediately and ran inside the house to do so. I returned two minutes later but by then they both had disappeared…and did not return the next day, or the next week, or the next month. I was almost heartbroken! It was like receiving a great gift and then misplacing it. I left peanuts on the table for days hoping they would come back. There was a ray of hope when I returned sometimes to find the peanuts gone. But I saw after watching from inside for about twenty minutes that the resident crows were taking them in our absence.

After several weeks a different pair of scrub jays appeared. One of them began taking peanuts by a hit and run flyby almost immediately. The other, who was missing feathers around the neck, would not approach closer than about six feet. A few days later, Patty and her camera came outside with me. As luck would have it, that was the day that the bold jay began staying on my hand for a few seconds.

Playing with the scrub jays became a highly anticipated morning ritual: restock the bird feeders, fill my pockets with peanuts, and sit down with the newspaper in the backyard or patio. These two birds came around every two to ten minutes for three hours or more nearly every morning. I ran out of peanuts. The next morning when they arrived I tried substituting some sunflower seeds. The bold one landed on my hand but was decidedly not interested in sunflower seeds. He scolded me a little and pecked my thumb several times, enough to raise a blood blister, then flew off. When I got more peanuts, I filled a wooden box with them so I wouldn’t have to keep running inside to get more every half hour. My son Jason had packed a Christmas gift in the box. It originally contained an expensive bottle of Tequila. I think he got it at the grocery store where he works. The first morning I used it, I finally decided to go inside after three and half hours and about a half a pound of peanuts. The jays usually flew out of sight to hide them: a couple of yards on the east side, down the slope to the north, in the pine tree next door. I guess when those places began filling up, they started trying the mulch in the flower beds, the hanging Creeping Charlies, even a sufficiently soft spot in the lawn. They would jam them forcefully and if the peanut went in far enough, it got hammered several times with a slightly open beak, then covered with a leaf or grass or whatever was available to hide it completely.

One morning the birds had not yet appeared when I heard them around in front of the house. I walked out on the front lawn and saw a scrub jay in a tree in the side yard of a house across the street. I doubted I could get it’s attention at that distance (about 50 yards), but trying that was preferable to crossing the street. I called softly “Hey, big bird.”, and turned and opened my hand palm up with a peanut in it, as usual. I was amazed and very happy with what happened next. He immediately flew the entire distance, landed on my hand, held the peanut and “talked” to me. His somewhat ragged friend also came over but stayed on the garage roof until I threw a peanut on the driveway. They both made several trips over the next twenty minutes or so. It was great day.

Those birds were so reliable I thought I should invite friends over to show off. But I never did. The truth is, I got such a kick out of it I didn’t want to risk spoiling it. Patty captured a small part of our best day with them on video: Scrub Jay Heaven.

At some point in those weeks, there were times when there were four scrub jays around. They almost always arrived by twos: the bold one and the one with missing feathers, and the other pair where one was slightly larger than the other and whom I believe were the first to spend time with us last August. Their physical appearances are all so similar, except for the one with missing feathers, that I cannot tell one from another by sight. But their behavior is now a reliable means of indentification. So it was also during this time that I decided they must have names, just to make it easier to talk about them. The bold bird’s name was obvious, if uninspired: Jay. His companion became Kay. I have no way of knowing their sex but I have seen Jay catch a spider and other live food in the lawn and feed part of it to Kay. The other pair I named Larry and Maggie to keep the alphabetical thing going.

Jay is still the only one who will land on my hand and only when there is a peanut there. I did trick him once by opening my hand while I was on the patio and he was in the corner mulberry tree. He flew all the way to me, then scolded me when there was nothing there. I quickly gave him a peanut in the other hand and he has never fallen for that again. Kay arrives from the east in the morning, usually ahead of Jay. She sometimes waits patiently on the fence. If I am too focused on the newspaper, she hops across the lawn into the grapevine at the edge of the patio in front of me to get my attention. She will take peanuts that I drop on the patio beside my foot rest. She hops part way straight ahead, then alternates sideways, right side, left side, always with an eye on me. She sometimes gets close, then spooks and retreats a couple of feet. It seems that speaking softly to her when she hesitates helps reassure her, making her retreat less often.

Larry and Maggie arrive from the west. Both will now take peanuts placed in the middle of my foot rest beside my legs. Larry’s favored approach begins on the back of the loveseat across the patio.He jumps to the small table and crouches on the edge nearest me. Next he jumps to the edge of the foot rest and hangs on the outside edge. He sometimes flies back to the loveseat from there, but usually he comes up on top and stretches as far as possible to grab the peanut and fly off to the west. Speaking softly seems to help him as well to secure his prize. Maggie is almost always in a hurry. She waits on the back of another patio chair for me to place a peanut and sit back, then flies right there with her right side facing me, grabs and goes.

I have read a few articles that complained about the noise that scrub jays make. Their calls are very distinctive and usually loud. But in my experience they are quiet when alone or in a pair. The noise happens when two pairs show up together. They seem to be territorial. More than once, all four of these birds have come to the back yard together. They can be heard scolding each other as they approach. Typically, they take up positions on opposite sides of the yard and wait for someone to make the first move. The others are likely to chase after whoever dares to pick up a peanut first with much screeching and clicking.

One such occasion was the day after the video was made. Jay came and took a peanut from my hand and Larry came racing across the yard. Jay dropped down on the table beside me and Larry went on by. Jay then flew toward the west fence and Larry went after him again. They ended up in one of those beak to beak vertical dogfights. I couldn’t tell who actually won but I think it was Larry because Jay and Kay did not return to the backyard for a month afterward. Larry and Maggie came steadily and gradually came closer as I mentioned earlier. I enjoyed seeing them, but I really missed the thrill of Jay coming to me.

One afternoon Patty and I decided to take a walk. Six houses down the street I spotted two scrub jays on a roof top. We saw each of them in turn go up under the eaves for a few seconds and then out again. When we got closer, I could see one of them was Kay. I was curious about what was in the eaves and walked up the sidewalk to see. Before I got there Jay landed on the garage roof. I knew it was Jay because he came right down to me when I held out my hand with a peanut. I carry a few with me almost all the time now. Jay carried his treasure away and I walked up to the house and looked under the eaves. The homeowners had installed outdoor lights and there was a nest behind one of them. I took a couple of snapshots and turned to leave. I guess the unusual activity attracted the homeowner’s attention and she came out the front door. Patty and I explained that we had just seen the scrub jays and showed her the nest in the eaves. When she opened the gate to come out and look we saw a tiny egg on the sidewalk, broken open and still wet.

She told us that there had been a family of jays living in the trees in their backyard for years. They had recently revamped the yard and removed the trees and thought the jays were gone. In a previous year, there was a hammock in the backyard. She said the young jays would perch in the middle of it while the adults would stay on the edges and rock it, occasionally dislodging a youngster who would then get a flying lesson at a relatively safe distance above the ground. I was truly envious by then.

Larry and Maggie continued to visit nearly every morning, but not Jay and Kay. After several months of unemployment, my mornings had fallen into a new routine. I got up between 7:30 and 8:00, put on some old clothes and a sweatshirt and brought in the newspaper. We get the OC Post Monday through Saturday and the Orange County Register Friday through Sunday. Without bird watching and feeding, the OC Post takes me about an hour, the Register about three hours. Both take considerable longer with the welcome interruptions of the scrub jays. I usually started out on a chair on the patio. Sometimes I moved to a lawn chair in the sun for awhile or out to the corner garden in late morning. One of the long mornings, Larry and Maggie had been taking peanuts somewhat sporadically up until about 11:30. I moved into the corner garden. Around noon Jay and Kay arrived, quietly landing in the mulberry tree and on the fence. They took peanuts pretty much like old times for an hour or so. It was almost like they had just waited to avoid a confrontation with the other two.

The next few days followed a similar pattern. Larry and Maggie came early, Jay and Kay after 11:00. Jay, however, seemed to be much less obsessive-compulsive about peanuts than in the past. He was almost always around but frequently was content to just watch as Kay took the peanuts. But when he finally did decide he wanted some, there was no mistaking his intentions. He would seem to appear out of nowhere. I would look up from the paper to see him standing quietly on the Tequila box on the table beside me. Or he would suddenly land on my head. It was great to have him back.

Other Scrub Jay Websites

If you have read this far, you probably think I’m a little odd to be so taken with some birds. You may be right, but there is something very satisfying about seeing a wild bird come to trust you enough to be hand fed. Here are a few other scrub jay web sites which express similar and even more emotional attachments.

July 26, 2007

Jay and Kay have come only three times over the last four months, and Maggie and Larry not at all. One day in early June I was standing near the back fence when literally out of the blue, Jay dropped down and looked at me. I was startled but knew it was Jay because no other bird has come so close. I hurried into the house to get some peanuts, begging him to stay put ’til I got back, and he did. He and Kay stayed for about an hour. I also got a little over three minutes of video with my new camera.

August 17, 2007

Kay has been coming for an hour or so over the last three days but Jay has put in only two brief appearances in the last month. But they both came back in a big way today, arriving just a minute apart around 8:30 and made a great many peanut runs over the next three hours. Their personalities are still the most reliable guide to their identities. Kay has new neck feathers and is no longer distinguishable by sight. Jay is now the raggedy-looking one of the pair.

The morning was much like the great sessions last fall and winter. There was even a squawking match when a third scrub jay showed up. It started to approach, much like Kay, but was driven away by both Jay and Kay. It came back a little later, briefly perching on the back fence. From it’s size, I think maybe it was Larry but I have no way knowing.

September 2, 2007

The last two weeks have been great: the jays have come every day except one, when it was overcast and a thunder storm occurred to the south. When Kay arrived this morning she was preoccupied with scratching her neck and preening. It looks like her distinctive “ring around the neck” may be returning. Jay seems to be about done molting and looks himself again. He has also taken to pecking my fingers when weighing the peanuts, occassionally grabbing and twisting. I can’t figure out why.

December 2007

Jay and Kay have been infrequent visitors since mid-October, appearing no more than once a week and sometimes only taking a couple of peanuts when they do show up.

May 13, 2008

Jay and Kay began visiting nearly everyday again in January. I started my new job on March 3 but don’t have to be there until 9 AM so I make it a point to spend some time every morning outside. It was very gratifying that they continued to come by most mornings. Now Jay has been absent for nearly a month. Last week, Kay was accompanied by an unfamiliar bird: relatively tall and slender as scrub jays go, and very inquisitive and observant. After about 4 days of coaxing he has taken peanuts from my hand 3 times, though very nervously. The last time he perched on my fingertips, gripping them tightly while leaning as far back as possible. He looked at my face intently for about 3 seconds, then grabbed a peanut and flew away in a flash of blue feathers. I decided that henceforth he will be called Nicky.

November 2, 2008

First Jay, then Kay, and even Nicky have all stopped visiting. I must admit to being more than a little sad that I no longer see them and just don’t know what has become of them. For a couple of months now, there have been two other birds coming erratically. They sometimes come three days in a row and other times are absent for more than a week. It has been particularly irksome that they sometimes arrive in the morning a few minutes after I leave for work and again in the evening about an hour before I get home. My most excellent spouse, Patricia, tells me that they squawk until she goes out with peanuts. And then they don’t come on the weekend!

But yesterday was different. I was home and they both came for an hour or so, as did the two crows. Some new names are needed for these latest arrivals: non-gender-specific beginning with O and P. Patty suggested “Pat” for one. There is one that is a little smaller than the other and who definitely “talks” more. I’m thinking “Oprah” would be appropriate somehow.
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