Upon returning from a week long mycology collecting trip in the North
Cascades we found a nest of deer mice in the trunk of my friends car. He
chucked the nest and 5 baby mice into the bushes. In less than a minute a
stellars jay was after the baby mice. It was pretty clumsy about killing
them, but it managed the first one, carried it off, then returned within a
minute to go after the next. I assume it stashed them somewhere. The jay
collected 3 of the 5 during the 15 minutes or so while we were there
watching. It chased down the third one for several minutes, the baby mouse
was a good jumper and would jump, rather clumsily when the jay got close.
This was an interesting lesson to watch because the 3 mice that were taken
all were wandering around, while the two that survived at least until we
left, immediately took cover and stayed under cover.

Rob Sandelin
South Snohomish County at the headwaters of Ricci Creek
Sky Valley Environments <http://www.nonprofitpages.com/nica/SVE.htm>
Field skills training for student naturalists
Floriferous at msn.com


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