Subject: Scrub jays and other Puyallup stuff
Date: Mar 10 09:04:59 2004
From: jbroadus at seanet.com - jbroadus at seanet.com


Hi Dennis & other tweeters:

I was wondering if anyone is still keeping breeding bird
data (I noticed the breeding bird atlas web site has not
been updated since 1996 or so). What got me
interested is that Clarice and I have been seeing a slow
but steady increase in scrub jays in our Puyallup
neighborhood over the last few years. Last winter was
the first winter when we saw two together frequently, for
the entire season. This spring we were working on a
property survey (a type of work which can be conducive
to a little bird watching sometimes) and for the first time
I saw three of them messing around one particular tree
at the same time.

They always seem to pick tall, very dense evergreen
trees, so I don't know if I'll ever be able to confirm
breeding behaviour, but they are hanging out so close to
our house, and becoming so regular, that there is at
least a chance that I might luck out and see some
nesting material being carried or something like that. I
plan to keep looking just for the fun of it. Anyway, if we
do see something like that is there anyone who would
care for the report?

Clarice also saw a yellow shafted flicker among the
multiple flickers that are beating on our house this time
of year. Wonder if this is the year of slightly more
"exotic" birds in our Western Wash. neighborhood?

Thanks.Jerry Broadus, PLS
Geometrix Surveying, Inc.
P.O. Box 249
Puyallup, WA. 98371