Wiley vs Jay

I like to feed our scrub jays, but I try to be creative when it comes to putting the peanuts out for them. You see, we have squirrels, quite a few of them. And they have their own "feeder" where we continue to put peanuts in the shell in their container. But back in mid-January, on a Saturday morning, I actually saw a squirrel, a determined squirrel attempt to steal the peanuts I put out for the scrub jays. One of my creative places happens to be a couple of empty plant pots that are placed in a metal hanger that is connected to the wall of our shed. It's high enough that squirrels cannot jump up on the pots, yet it seems to be the perfect spot for the jays. And it's a perfect spot for me to watch the jays and get a few photos through my bedroom window.

Here is the culprit. I have named him Wiley. Would you believe this squirrel actually climbed up the wall to those pots!? These photos make him look so sweet and innocent. He succeeded too. I wish I had gotten a photo of him climbing the wall. He managed to steal at least 4 peanuts from the jays. I finally got upset enough that I went back out and retrieved the rest of the peanuts and had to put them in a platform feeder we have on a pole. That meant that I had to get the step stool out in order to put the peanuts in the feeder. The "pole feeder" is definitely squirrel proof. But I also thought those plant pots were squirrel proof. Oh well!

Maybe some day I'll be able to use those pots again for the jays' peanuts. But for now we'll have to try to stay a step ahead of Mr. Wiley.

Birding Festival - part 3

Our third destination for the day was Pinnacles National Monument. Pinnacles has two entrances, the west side and the east side. Friday afternoon we were to meet the group at the west entrance to Pinnacles. We got separated from the group when our "fearless leader" suggested stopping by a winery in the town of Gonzales, and he didn't try to keep us all together. We already knew where we were going, so no need to caravan with the group. So we chose to find a place to stop for lunch where we found a McDonald's there in Gonzales. After a refreshing lunch we were on our way again, headed for Pinnacles. When we reached our destination and entered the park, we paid the fee and proceeded to the parking lot where we found a few folks from our group also hanging around wondering where our "fearless leader" was. After waiting an extra half hour it was the consensus to leave the park and slowly drive down the road where we came in, hoping to see the rest of the group including the leader.

[To see a larger image, click on the photos]

These photos were all taken around the Pinnacles area. The countryside is so beautiful. Apparently this whole area located in San Benito county, also known as the Salinas River Valley, has vineyards all over. Even though this whole valley looks quite dry they must have a decent water table to accommodate all these vineyards. Most every vineyard we came across used the drip irrigation system.
Nevertheless, birds around here were few and far between. Most of the birds we saw (while still looking for the birding group) were what I would find locally in the Silicon Valley -- lesser goldfinches, scrub jays, house finches, etc. Below is a scrub jay hanging around this "water tank." It was fun watching all the finches darting in and out of the "spout." That's the area below the scrub jay where the tank is showing white where it was dry and black where it was still wet from the water spilling out. Visit Red's blog to see more photos.

By the way, this was the area where we finally ran into our "fearless leader" and the other birders. The group that had been driving around with us told the others that there were more birds up around the vineyard we had just come from. We chose to leave the group at this time, since they wanted to go back up to the vineyard and we were running very low on gas -- and it was about 10 miles to the nearest gas station, luckily downhill all the way. Overall, the best and most birdy part of the day was at Moon Glow Dairy. But it was a lot of fun going from Zmudowski Beach (wet, watery, oceany) to Moon Glow Dairy (Elkhorn Sough, mudflats, riparian) and then on to a much drier and warmer locale, Pinnacles/Salinas River valley area. We definitely saw a lot of varied geography as well as a variety of birds. Our next post will be about Saturday's events.

A favorite backyard resident

Here is one of our resident scrub jays. It was amusing watching this bird caching his peanut -- as with most of my backyard "residents," he/she knows I'm watching and apparently didn't want his/her picture taken. I don't have anything planted in those pots -- believe me I tried once or twice. But between the birds burying their treasures in these small pots and my not remembering to water them on a daily basis, nothing would survive.

After Mr. Jay buried his peanut, he then proceeded to "snoop" around on the ground just to the left of the hanging pots. I apologize for not getting better shots, but as I mentioned before it seems that my backyard birds don't like their pictures taken. Mmmm. Maybe I should try wearing fatigues. :)