Blue Jays, Squirrels and Rabbits Welcome Man Home After a Month!

Blue Jays, Squirrels and Rabbits Welcome Man Home After a Month!

I receive an enthusiastic welcome upon returning to the Florida Backyard from the birds and furry creatures after a month away. I think they refer to me as Mr. Peanut, but I get so much more Joy out of knowing them! The Blue Jays have their second brood to show off and the squirrels are not showing any signs of the dreaded Bot Fly Larvae this summer. Even the Cardinals and of the course the newest Backyard member - The Bunny - show up!
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Blue Jays, Squirrels and Rabbits Welcome Man Home After a Month!

Blue Jays and Cardinals - Extreme Close-Up

Video: Blue Jays and Cardinals - Extreme Close-Up

Close-up looks at gorgeous Northern Cardinals and Blue Jays - two of the most common, but most colorful North American Backyard Birds. Also some nice extended Cardinal Songs - a sure sign of spring!

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Video: Blue Jays and Cardinals - Extreme Close-Up

Blue Jays Prank Squirrels - and Humans!

Video: Blue Jays Prank Squirrels - and Humans!

Blue Jays seem to delight in terrorizing the Backyard Gray Squirrels and manipulating us humans with their false alarm calls. When I hear these loud group alarm calls I usually grab the camera and head for the door as something interesting may be up! But it doesn't really take much to trick a squirrel or myself and the Jays have learned to use their vastly superior intellect to get more peanuts by drawing me out in the morning this way. They then settle in for a peanut  party which I am too nice to deny them as I have left them alone for a month in Florida, but they do seem to have a bit of a guilty look on their faces.

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Video: Blue Jays Prank Squirrels - and Humans!

Screech Owl Versus Blue Jays

Video: Screech Owl Versus Blue Jays

Screech Owl uses newly documented scary daytime defensive posture against annoying Blue Jays and Mockingbirds consist of wide eyed blinking and open mouth snapping to look more intimidating. Mother red morph Eastern Screech Owl is trying to take a break outside the nest box in the daytime and let the fast growing owlets have some room and air to cool down. Ordinarily she would never expose herself in the daytime except for nesting season. The Blue Jays are not going to let her rest - they want to harass her until she leaves their nesting area, but she is not going to leave her nest box - thus a standoff. Father Screech Owl sometimes kills songbirds roosting in the trees at night to feed the owlets so you can't blame the Blue Jays. Screech Owls are very small owls and have different techniques to deal with threats including making themselves very skinny like a branch when a real dangerous threat is around like a hawk or big owl or puffing themselves up for some threats they can intimidate like squirrels. These behaviors can be seen in this documentary:

Eastern Screech Owl Camouflage and Defensive Survival Techniques 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfpP7JiW8yM

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Video: Screech Owl Versus Blue Jays

Blue Jays Harass Screech Owls in Nest Box

Video: Blue Jays Harass Screech Owls in Nest Box

Blue Jays harass the female Eastern Screech Owl nesting in the nest box every morning - this attempted intimidation may make the Blue Jays - the Backyard micro managers - feel better, but I'm not sure what purpose it serves as the owls rule the night and the male owl is quietly watching all this activity from his hidden perch in the deep cover of Palmetto trees nearby. Screech Owls readily hunt and eat songbirds sleeping in trees at night. Birds that are late to turn in like Cardinals and Dove can sometimes be taken by the male owl right at dusk. If the Blue Jays were to discover the male owls daytime roost in the heavy brush they would attack him mercilessly and he would retreat. It is unlikely such pressure would stop the owls from using the nest box, but if one were to put a perch on the front of the nest box it could very well lead to failure of nesting as such a perch could be used to more seriously harass and fight with the female owl and get at the eggs.  Such are the ways of Nature.

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Video: Blue Jays Harass Screech Owls in Nest Box

Blue Jays Versus Woodpecker

Video: Blue Jays Versus Woodpecker

Male Red Bellied Woodpecker joins the Blue Jay Family in the fight for morning peanuts. Presented in real-time it takes about 50 seconds from the time I open the door until the peanuts are gone! Listen for the blue jays imitating a Red Shouldered Hawk call as intimidation to keep squirrels and other birds away while the Jay strike force hits the peanuts.

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Video: Blue Jays Versus Woodpecker

Trained Blue Jay Family - Ride Of The Valkyries

Video: Trained Blue Jay Family - Ride Of The Valkyries

Ten Blue Jays in a family or "attack squadron" in the Backyard are being trained to feed in formation each morning from the Oak Tree to a peanut landing deck. These videos taken over two days show their progress so far - not exactly military flight precision, but they are getting the hang of it. Typically the first four or five hit their marks with the precision of Navy pilots making carrier landings and then things tend to break into chaos a bit - and a few impressive interlopers even join in!

The "Ride of the Valkyries" (German: Walkürenritt or Ritt der Walküren) is the popular term for the beginning of act 3 of Die Walküre, the second of the four operas by Richard Wagner that constitute Der Ring des Nibelungen that is perfect for this video. As a separate piece, the "Ride" is often heard in a purely instrumental version, which may be as short as three minutes. Together with the "Bridal Chorus" from Lohengrin, the Ride of the Valkyries is one of Wagner's best-known pieces. Courtesy of the YouTube audio library.

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Video: Trained Blue Jay Family - Ride Of The Valkyries

Grackles Versus Blue Jays Up Close

Video: Grackles Versus Blue Jays Up Close

Purple Grackles and Blue Jays are not going to share the bird seed - period! The arrival of the iridescent Purple Grackles - a  subspecies of common Grackle has seriously cramped the Blue Jay's style. A Purple Grackle announces he's the new songbird king of the Backyard - that's not going to go over to well with the resident Blue Jays! If you have never seen a Purple Grackle up close - they are quite beautiful and striking birds with their sharp yellow/black eyes and black, purple, green, brown, and blue iridescent feathers depending on how the light strikes them.

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Video: Grackles Versus Blue Jays Up Close

Blue Jay Couple Gathering Nest Material

Video: Blue Jay Couple Gathering Nest Material

Mating Blue Jay couple building a nest are gathering material over two days. Both parents participate in gathering material and building the nest. They are very slow and picky about what they gather and appear to give the subject great deliberation. Notice especially on the first half of the video that they each have different kinds of materials. They both give a barely audible contact chirp while they gather and are very careful about revealing the location of their nest. Typically flying a circuitous route back to the nesting site in case a predator is watching. They are extremely intelligent backyard birds.

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Video: Blue Jay Couple Gathering Nest Material

Blue Jay Eyes a Peanut

Blue Jay Eyes a Peanut

My Blue Jay friend about to enjoy a peanut!

Video: Hand feeding my Blue Jay Buddy!

Florida Lighting Thunder and Cicada Crescendo !

Video: Florida Lighting Thunder and Cicada  Crescendo !

Violent afternoon Lightning Storm with deafening Thunder in Florida and Cicada's and Blue Jays rise in unison to a deafening crescendo. Is it a coincidence? The Crescendo occurs around the 1:00 mark. Turn up the volume to hear an amazing overload of the sounds of Nature! A bit of trivia - unlike northern Cicadas, in Florida they are active every year.

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Video: Florida Lighting Thunder and Cicada  Crescendo !

Squirrel Juggling Peanuts !

Video: Squirrel Juggling Peanuts !

Cute squirrel juggles peanuts - its nesting season and if the squirrels can't learn to carry more than one peanut at a time to the nest the Blue Jays will have them. Our blue jays are actually bigger than some of the squirrels and definitely tougher and to be feared! Perseverance pays off in the end! Filmed with a cell phone. 

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Video: Squirrel Juggling Peanuts !