Arrived at 3d and Maple around 8:45 this morning, no Blue Jay to be found.
Lots of noise from crows and Steller's Jays, so I started walking the
streets w/in a couple-block radius. Noticed that the resident of the house
where the BLJA's been hanging out had put out a pie pan filled w/seed on the
top of one of the fenceposts. STJA were feeding from it when whoosh, in
flew the BLJA! It bullied its way to the pie pan and chowed down there for
a while, then moved to a nearby hanging feeder.

I stood kitty-corner from the pie pan feeder for about 40 min., watching the
comings and going of the jays. The STJA were much noisier, calling quite
often. By contrast I heard the BLJA call only once, and that was when it
had flown into some trees next to/behind the blue duplex kitty-corner from
the BLJA house.

There were 2 dozen or so pigeons on the telephone wires, every so often a
gull would spook them, the BLJA would then spook, and all the birds would
leave their perches/feeding spots briefly. There were several
spook-and-return sessions while I was standing on the corner freezing. I
enjoyed listening to the soft rushing of the pigeons' wings as they wheeled
around and prepared to light once again on the telephone wires.

The woman who lives in the BLJA house (actually, it looks like an immobile
mobile home, there's also a trailer parked next to it) came out and said she
was planning to move the hanging feeder out to a fencepost later in the day.
We chatted briefly about how aggressively the BLJA behaved towards the STJA,
taking over the pie pan whenever it returned to feed and actively chasing
away the STJA.

Question re Bald Eagles: When do they start building nests?? It's kind of
early, right?? On the way back home, just across the bridge, I saw two Bald
Eagles overhead, flying towards trees that lined the canal. Both of them
were carrying nesting-material-size twigs/branches. I checked both Sibley
and Kaufman, neither of whom mentioned when nest-building begins (maybe it's
time to spring for the BNA subscription). If not for nests, I wonder why
both birds were carrying nesting material.

All in all, it was a very brief but satisfying trip!

Cheers,
Mary

Mary Klein
Bremerton WA
CelloBird at seanet.com