>
> Just a little story I want to share.
>
> Last winter when I lived in NW Portland, I had a third floor apartment
> with big windows and nice window sills. I had been feeding House Finches
> for a while, and occasionally a Scrub Jay would propel itself at the
> little plastic feeder-on-a-suction-cup, but was too big to get any
> sunflower seeds.
> So one day I got some whole peanuts and spread a few out on the
> windowsill and waited. At first they disappeared when I wasn't looking,
> but as the jay got bolder, I could sit just inside the window and
> replenish the peanuts one by one as he carried them off. He would sit
> there, inches away, waiting for me to give him the next one, looking at
> me with his black eyes.
> ...

Our Stellers (sp?) Jays have trained us pretty well. They bang the deck
railing with their beaks and then yell at the door as if to say "Well?".

After we throw a few peanuts onto the deck, they scoop them up and take them
to their hiding places (the gap between the down-spouts and the house make a
nice "nook" - or is it a "cranny"?).

dean