Something Happened to the Scrub Jays
Posted by juliana on June 6th, 2009 filed in BirdsOne day when I was checking on the nest, neither of the Scrub Jays were sitting on it. After that, I never saw them on the nest. I thought that possibly the eggs had hatched, but then I didn’t seen them going to the nest to feed possible chicks either. I knew something had happened when on a very cold, rainy day they still weren’t on the nest. Even if the chicks had hatched the parents would be sitting on them in weather like that. A couple days ago I found proof something had gotten the eggs; a crumbled egg shell, the right coloration for Scrub Jays lay on the ground. A predator had gotten their eggs, an intruding Western Scrub Jay or a Stellar’s Jay were the most likely candidates. They’re known for eating other bird’s eggs and young. A couple days later I found three more broken eggs inside the bush, but these were not Scrub Jays eggs. They were small blue eggs with brown speckles. A Robin’s eggs? Did the same jay that got the Scrub Jay’s get theirs? I don’t know, and may never know. I just wish that the baby birds could have survived.
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June 16th, 2009 at 10:22 pm
The mockingbirds in our orange tree seem to have raised one baby and one egg didn’t hatch. The parents were kept quite busy getting food and watching out for the neighborhood cats (my two and some others) and have now left the area. They also dive-bombed my neighbor’s german shepard when he was in their back yard, just on the other side of the fence from the tree.
Hope your summer is fun and look forward to seeing you all at the river or beach.