It's not unusual to see or hear Blue Jays around my west Centennial neighborhood (Arapahoe). But lately they've been behaving a bit differently. For the first time since I moved here (March 2016), I've noticed a Blue Jay pair making frequent visits to my yard. I think there's nesting a few houses over, but I've spotted them collecting nesting material, sharing food from my feeder, and visiting my bird bath. They've also been mimicking Cooper's Hawks non-stop, which has misled me more than once now.
One of those misleading moments...involved actual calling Cooper's Hawks. While walking through my front yard (sans optics), I heard a Cooper's, figured it was a jay, and then saw a series of accipiters fly over. Three passed by. I assume two were a local Cooper's pair. I don't know about the third. Maybe an interloper. But it could have been a female sharpie being escorted out. I didn't get very good looks at any of them. Also, at least one Woodhouse's Scrub Jay is still in my neighborhood. I hear it while walking my dogs, but rarely see it anymore. Perhaps they're finding better food than they find in my sporadically filled feeder. *Others*For the better part of the past month, I've had visits from a Lincoln's Sparrow. I can't be sure it's the same one that showed up relatively early in mid-March, as I'll sometimes go a day or so without seeing it. Today, a House Finch pair were tearing apart my apple blossoms. I watched them from my kitchen. From there, I couldn't tell whether they were eating the petals or finding something else in the flowers. I noticed them seeming to drop most of the petals, though. But an inspection of the remaining blossoms didn't reveal any insects I could see (with my eyes). Not my report -- but Red Crossbills are being seen all over Arapahoe and Denver, according to eBird and Facebook reports. Neat. - Jared Del Rosso Centennial, CO -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/50791ecb-eb7d-4b3d-983b-9b14f2f41bca%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
