By James E. Kerns

5 February 2006

 

As my kids were growing up, we spent a lot of time reading as a family.  When they were little we read all of Thornton W. Burgess’ books.  He had a whole series of “Mother West Wind” stories in which he animated various animals and birds and recounted their adventures.  The stories were exciting for the kids, and held our adult interests, too, partly because Burgess accurately portrayed the creatures’ real habits and characteristics.  He’d obviously spent a good deal of time studying the real-life subjects in the wild.

One of Burgess’ characters was Sammy Jay.  Sammy Jay was a thief and a trouble-causer.  He took delight in getting his neighbors into trouble, and was not above lying to do it.

Here in Eastern Oregon we have two species of jays.  One is Clark’s Nutcracker.  It’s a gray bird with black markings, and lives high in the mountains.  The other is Steller’s Jay.  Steller’s Jay is a beautiful dark blue with a black head and crest.  It lives in coniferous forests, and is a winter resident around farmhouses in the valleys.  Steller’s Jays eat seeds, insects, and table scraps, and are often seen around backyard bird feeders.

My favorite bird is the California Quail.  Coveys of quail have passed through our yard and driveway all my life.  Cock quail are fond of perching on the fence post in front of the house and giving their que que que, three-note call.  They’re fat, cute little birds that would rather walk and run than fly.  When startled they zoom off with a flurry of wings and disappear into the nearest thick cover of bushes or trees.

Our covey of quail had a good hatch of babies this year.  I was interested to note that the chicks didn’t arrive until late July, or even August.  The covey was larger this fall than I’d ever seen it.  There must have been 75 birds.  I was thrilled.  We can’t have too many quail.  They cause no trouble, and I love them.

But this winter was hard on them.  Here on the hill the snow is deep.  Food must be hard to find.  One day I noted with distress that there were only eight quail left—six males, and two females.  Was scarcity of food the problem, or was it predators?  Quail are a favored prey for a lot creatures, especially hawks.

I decided that my little covey needed some help.  I noted that the quail came along our driveway every morning about 7:30, and that they always stopped to peck and scratch around under the juniper tree in the front yard.  They probably stopped there because it was one of the few places where bare ground showed through the snow.  Promptly at 7:15 I dumped a small pile of bird seed on the ground under the tree.  That timing was necessary to keep the seeds from all being eaten by magpies before the quail arrived.  If magpies got there first, they’d keep the quail from coming.

Another bird that began visiting the bird seed was a Steller’s Jay.  I was happy to see that he didn’t dominate the quail.  When the quail arrived, he’d move aside and fly up into the juniper.

Every morning I watched as the quail arrived.  Every morning I counted them.  One morning I was distressed because there were only six.  Both of the precious females were missing.  We couldn’t lose them or there wouldn’t be a fresh batch of babies next summer.  Had a hawk gotten them?  I worried and fretted over the possibilities for a full five minutes until all of a sudden both of the missing birds came winging in from their night perch up in the spruce tree to the north of the house.  They were just late getting up.  I breathed a sigh of relief, but it made me alert to the dangers that my covey faced.

Therefore, I was distressed again a few days later when I heard the call of a Red-tailed Hawk.  The call was coming from the spruce tree or somewhere beyond.  I walked out the driveway to see him, and maybe scare him away.  He should have been sitting right at the top of the spruce tree.  That’s where hawks like to sit.  They perch right on the highest branch of a tree where they can have an unobstructed view of all the surrounding countryside so that they can detect any movement of potential prey.

I plainly heard the hawk, but I couldn’t see him.  I never did find him, and concluded that he must have seen me coming and flew off, keeping the tree between him and me.

The same thing happened a day or two later.  This time as I observed the spruce tree it almost seemed like the hawk call was coming from within its dense foliage.  I finally dismissed the thought, though, because hawks just don’t go into such dense covering.  He must have slipped out the back way again.

The next day I fed my quail on time, and went back in the house.  The Steller’s Jay was first to arrive.  I watched from my son’s bedroom window.  Immediately after the jay’s arrival, the quail flew in from their spruce tree perch.  The Steller’s Jay moved aside, flew up into the juniper tree, perched there about six feet above the quail in my plain view (but shielded from the quails’ view), opened his beak, and let out a hawk call!

The quails’ heads all jerked up in obvious alarm.  They quickly went back to pecking, however.  They’d been fooled before.  I couldn’t believe it.  I was amazed, so I watched carefully as the jay made the hawk call two more times before he lapsed back into his proper jay voice.  There was no doubt about it.  The Red-tailed Hawk that I’d been trying to see all week was really just an imitation.  That bird was smart!  He knew exactly what he was doing.  He was hoping to scare the quail away from the food that he wanted for himself.  But the quail were smart, too.  Tricks played too often cease to be tricky.

I went to my bird books.  A Guide to Field Identification, Birds of North America by Robbins, Bruun and Zim (Western Publishing Co., Racine, Wisconsin, 1966) says “Steller’s imitates hawks expertly.”

Roger Tory Peterson, probably America’s foremost authority on birds, gave confirmation:  “Frequently mimics Red-tailed Hawk, Golden Eagle.”  (Peterson Multimedia Guides:  North American Birds, Simon and Schuster, 2000).

Thornton W. Burgess was right.  Sammy Jay is a troublemaker and a liar.