Sunday, September 11, 2011

In my youth in Ontario I really enjoyed two of the
common feeder birds Blue Jays and Northern Cardinals.
Okay I liked flashy. We do not get Northern Cardinals
here and while we normally have Blue Jays in the
neighbourhood they are not as obvious as they are in
Ontario. I suspect the large numbers of Magpies and
possibly the Crows push the them down in the pecking
order. To see if I could attract them I put out a peanut
feeder with a home made squirrel shield. The squirrels
still get some nuts but it prevents them from actually
chewing the feeders apart as they do with other plastic
feeders.  The sparrows, finches, nuthatches and squirrels
enjoy the peanuts but while I saw a jay check it out a week
ago they did not come. I filled the feeder and went out of
town for a couple of days. When I got back the feeder
 was empty and yesterday I saw why, success. I also
noticed the jay seemed to be able to to take four or five
peanuts at once. So our yard is a more colourful and  much
noisy place.





This also gives me a chance to revisit a poem
I enjoy and one that influenced several quotes
etc. used in my blogs.

" Forked sticks upon the air,
Half-dead trees, where two
Blue jays shriek the summer sky
To a deaf world, their blue
The only water here.

The sun is axeman among dry
Slashing: he would clear
Kindling from these rocky hills:
The logos as belated pioneer,
One cry with the fanatic jay. ..,"

                          Blue Jay in Haliburton
                               D.G. Jones


4 comments:

Kelly said...

Yeah! Glad you've had success. I love your homemade squirrel foil! I always love to watch our Blue Jays stealing peanuts too!

Guy said...

Thanks Kelly

It has been interesting to watch the jay come screaming in scattering the smaller birds and the squirrels.

Regards
Guy

Unknown said...

Great shots and amazing how he holds all that food. Boom & Gary of the Vermilon River, Canada.

Guy said...

Hi Gary

Yes the jay is a regular peanut hoover it must be caching them everywhere. I guess we will see if any grow. Does Huegy your crow take a bunch of peanuts at once?

Guy