> My father grew up on the family farm about 10 miles south of Salem,
> Oreg. He remembers Steller's Jay as the common jay throughout the 30s,
> and the Scrub Jay ("California Jay") as pretty rarely seen. There was
> still quite a bit of Douglas fir and true fir timber on the local buttes,
> but the "grub" oaks stands in the mid-Willamette Valley were approaching
> 50 years of age. The Steller's Jay nested some in the riparian
> cottonwoods along the Willamette and Santiam Rivers, but also in the
> timber on the buttes and came down to the valley floor, sez he. Much of
> this timber was harvested from the buttes and foothills during the 30s
> and early 40s.

But the Oak Savannah habitat remnants found in today's Willamette Valley
landscape occupies much less space than in the past.

I think the answer might lie in a couple of directions:

1. Ag development did indeed lead to timber harvest and also clearing of the
Oak Savannah typically occupied by species like the scrub jay, acorn
woodpecker, and Lewis's woodpecker.

Decline of the latter species, at least, is partially due to the
spread of the starling. (acorn woodie? I don't know...)

Hey - yankees just took the lead again. I've always liked
David Cone...

Today, Oak Savannah is considered to be one of the rarest habitats
left in the valley.

2. In the case of the scrub jay, it is also true that the species, much
like the crow, has become much more urbanized in the last 50 years
(since the War). I think this has largely counterbalanced the
disappearence of the original oak habitat for this species. I, at
least, as a kid grew up thinking of this as a city bird...


> I read in Willard Ayres Eliot's "Birds of the Pacific Coast" (1923) that the
> California Jay distribution is: "Pacific Coast region from the Columbia
> River south to Lower California , and east to, and including, the Sierra
> Nevada and Cascades. Rare in the northern parts of its range.

Rare in the northern part of its range??? No longer, not in Portland!
It's all over the city! But, probably true originally.

> As the Scrub Jay is the common Jay in the Willamette Valley, along the
> Washington side of the Columbia, and - indeed - is common in some Olympia
> neighborhoods, it is apparent that their distribution has changed
> radically in the past 70 years.

Again - urbanization?

> I don't know how much of it is 'competition' and how much is habitat-
> related. Our Pacific Northwest has had its habitats altered very
> significantly - even in our short lifetimes, let alone since white
> settlement. It stands to reason that the bird populations will respond
> to those changes.

True, but in the case of this jay the original Oregon White Oak
(in Oregon!) habitat has greatly diminished. Though it flourishes
where such habitat still exists, i.e. Oak Island on Sauvie Island
(unlike Lewis's Woodpecker, which does not, due to starlings).

- Don Baccus, Portland OR <donb at rational.com>