In Idaho as of today, Sunday, 31 October, 2004 there have been 204 different
Blue Jays reported from 131 different locations. As in previous reports,
numbers are purposefully conservative, taking care to not count any possible
duplications of either individual birds or localities of occurrence. Not
included in these numbers are birds from the Coeur d'Alene area that are
clearly Steller's Jay x Blue Jay, have now been seen for multiple years, and
are therefore suggestive of breeding of these two species in the area.

Observations in Montana are also continuing to increase with a comparable
176 birds from at least 51 locations, although a major difference with Idaho
being that there are locations in Montana that report having Blue Jays in
all seasons (Kalispell, Whitefish), while along with the rest of the region,
still experiencing a noticeable increase in numbers since the latter portion
of September this year. Some localities such as Glendive report the species
"all over town" beginning in October, and other notes from places such as
upper Yellowstone state their birds to be the "first in several years."

There have been no new reports from Wyoming other than the one reported last
week, while Utah is currently experiencing an increased influx suggestive of
invasion movement originating from the north of the state. Presently the
Beehive State has at least 13 birds from as many as 10 locations, the most
southerly being from the central part of the state (Utah County). Nevada
has yet to report any Blue Jays, although there is what seems to be a
recently documented movement of what seems to be an altitudinal influx of
Steller's Jay in some more lower lying areas than in which the birds breed.

Oregon has tallied 21 apparently different birds from at least 12 locations,
all of which are east of the Cascades (except one probable "mother relayed"
observation in Clackamas). For a good photo of a Blue Jay from central
Oregon (Redmond) see <http://thebirdguide.com/temp_images/bluejay.jpg>
http://thebirdguide.com/temp_images/bluejay.jpg This, along with numerous
other pictures received, seems to point to the birds entering the region
being from the more northern subspecies C. c. bromia. (Especially see
<http://www.idahobirds.net/photo/photo.html>
http://www.idahobirds.net/photo/photo.html for a good representation of this
race.)

In Washington there are currently 41 reported sightings from 20 different
and separated locations, all in the eastern half of the state. Spokane
County is the only area of the state where Blue Jays are listed in the
Washington County-by-County Checklist/Abundance list as occurring yearly -
all other counties are "red" (less than 5 records) or "orange" (5+ records)
http://www.wos.org/County_Checklist.xls The observation the farthest west
seems to be from Bridgeport, Douglas County.

As but an minimal indicator of the magnitude of this Fall's invasion, there
have been 454 separate birds sighted from 224 different localities in the
above mentioned states, with the highest concentrations continuing to be
from Idaho and Montana. (British Columbia has reported at least 3 interior
records in September/October.)

Historically, the range of the Blue Jay has expanded beginning in Canada in
the 1940's and continuing in dramatic fashion in the 1970's, with successful
nesting reported from New Mexico, Wyoming, Montana (K. G. Smith 1978. Range
extension of the Blue Jay into western North America. Bird-Banding 49:
208-214), Oregon (D. Van Horn 1978. First breeding record of a Blue Jay in
Oregon. Murrelet 59: 70), and British Columbia (W. E. Godfrey 1986. The
birds of Canada. Rev. ed. Natl. Mus. of Can., Ottawa and R. W. Campbell, N.
K. Dawe, I. McTaggart-Cowan, J. M. Cooper, G. W. Kaiser 1997. The birds of
British Columbia. Vol. 3: flycatchers through vireos. Univ. of British
Columbia Press, Vancouver). Blue Jays have now also been documented in all
states bordering those aforementioned states. The percentage of the
population of Blue Jays the regularly migrates north to south (which the
present movement of C. c. bromia apparently is) in the eastern portion of
the continent is >20 % (P. A. Stewart 1982. Migration of Blue Jays in
eastern North America. N. Am. Bird Bander 7: 107-112)

[In a further "installment" of this series of updates on the movement of
Blue Jays this Fall, we will further consider migration and other seasonal
fluctuations. PLEASE continue to send reports of sightings and pictures to
me personally (hkrueger at cableone.net) or to your area listserv. All
preceding pieces on the Blue Jay can be found at www.IdahoBirds.net ]

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