In the group camp at Yosemite National Park, some campers had left behind a
goodly feast of cheerios and other goodies in a campsite and it was mobbed
with Brewers blackbirds. A loud coopers hawk scream sent the whole flock in
a panic across the creek and into the brush. A stellars jay dropped down out
of pine, Screamed again from the picnic table, and enjoyed the feast.

I raised one of these (jays) from a barely pinfeathered chick that a tourist
brought into the visitor center (the tourist was not able to speak english
and we couldn't figure out where the bird had been taken from). It was quite
a character to say the least. As it grew, it could copy an astonishing
variety of sounds, The click of the radio, the creeeeeek of the faucet, the
whoot whoot whoot of a rubber raft pump! Long after I released this bird it
would follow me around begging to be fed. In fact it got me in trouble on my
nature walks because it would sometimes land on my shoulder, which was
frowned upon by my boss.

There was a metal piece that hung from a wire that was part of the stove
pipe rigging and this bird would pull the metal piece way high in an arc,
let it go and it would go BONK on the metal stove pipe. Then it would
imitate the bonk! It would do this at 4am until I got up to feed it. My
cabin mate was not amused. We taped the metal thing down with several layers
of duct tape and it only delayed Jay about an hour. One day I was working on
my car and I heard the sound that a ratchet wrench makes and I thought
somebody else was working on my car. Nope, just the Jay. It would make odd
sounds, and sometimes we would figure out what it was days later. It became
kind of a game for some of us. Although I did not return to Yosemite, I
heard from some other rangers that for three years a jay haunted my old
cabin, making odd noises, flying inside and messing with stuff. One thing
about this bird, I never once heard it make the typical sound a jay makes
and I have often wondered if being raised by a human caused it to loose it
regular call. It would imitate other birds at times, but never one of its
own kind.

Rob Sandelin
Sky Valley Environments <http://www.nonprofitpages.com/nica/SVE.htm>
Field skills training for student naturalists
Floriferous at msn.com


-----Original Message-----
From: TWEETERS-owner at u.washington.edu
[mailto:TWEETERS-owner at u.washington.edu]On Behalf Of Blake Iverson
Sent: Monday, February 03, 2003 5:24 PM
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: Re: Corvid mimicry


Mike, I also had a steller's jay mimic a cooper's. I was running to the
window so I wouldn't miss the bird since I lived at the time in a heavly
wooded place and a sighting would be short. Sure enough, mr. jay popped out
of the alder and down to my feeder. Little butt! :)

Blake Iverson
Arlington, WA
coopershwk at hotmail.com

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