Blue Jays and Hawthorne and a video

 
 
 
I will post a quick follow up to the last hawk post. This time  I’ll discuss my observations of blue jays around Hawthorne. After this post I’ll post my video promo for my upcoming novel, DEAD FISH and What the Blue Jays Know. 
Usually I know when a raptor is in the yard, or even circling in the distant atmosphere. Blue  jays warn the entire territory when the great nemesis approaches. They scream alarms in spring nesting season and winter off-season. These alarms go off indiscriminately; it doesn’t matter if the predator is not hunting for a bird or rodent.  And a menacing red-tailed hawk on a tree has always inspired a blue jay scream. 
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Until Hawthorne joined the community.
 
Not only did Hawthorne’s presence not result in screams, she didn’t empty the feeders. Her presence on a limb in full view of all birds, twenty feet from the bird feeder, barely registered a chirp. And the blue jays fed while she watched.
 
Blue jays would occasionally alarm if they saw her circling above, but when she landed on the property, perched like an imperialist in a white pine limb, about twenty feet from the feeders, there were no screams. Nothing.  I’d sometimes walk out and say hey. The reaction from the blue jays was silence.  Hawthorne would never fly away. She’d stare at me for a while, then become a bit annoyed as my conversation alerted squirrels. I know. I wouldn’t do this often. The neighborhood accepted Hawthorne into the club.  It wasn’t just the blue jays; other birds, even doves, would sometimes eat while she watched.  She was not a threat. In fact, once she   chased a Cooper’s hawk away.  After that, she was one of the gang.
 
Of course, this has all occurred before nesting season, and Hawthorne has never attacked a bird in their presence, not even a duck. At least not in my yard. I don’t know what would have happened if she attacked a bird.  Perhaps Blue jays would have sent alarms and all of the gang would have disappeared. But they seemed confident this hawk would be only interested in squirrels, and  maybe if I accepted her and an occasional loss of squirrel, well, then, they accepted her. I have no idea. I just write the stories.
 
 **
 
Yesterday was one of these gorgeous March days, always a harbinger of spring. Bubba and Louise, my ducks, have arrived, along with a new, young competing duck couple (maybe Donald- the notorious bully of the past- and his girlfriend). They will bully them until it’s obvious I will only give corn to Louise and Bubba and sometimes their friends. I had to get out my canoe to calm the duck fights. It always works. They get it. Rules are rules.
 
Hawthorne hasn’t been around in a while, probably busy with nest building.  Blowers buzz intermittently, interrupting the click and crackle of  Grackles who crowd into pines and maples and overpopulate the periphery of the pond. Occasionally the cardinals call to each other, and Carolina wrens sing out with their intense operatic voices.
 
I haven’t heard a blue jay in a while. They disappear this time of year to mate and nest. Blue jays are very shy when it comes to these private family matters.
 
When May arrives in all its color and sound, I may observe a different blue jay, one more cautious and aggressive, not as accepting of a hawk friend. And if Hawthorne nests successfully, she may not be around for a while, perhaps the entire summer. But if she arrives, I’ll make sure to note her behavior changes and any changes in blue jays around her.
 
To date, however, during any season, I’ve never witnessed blue jays behave quietly and complacently around any hawk. Hawthorne is the first.

Turn up the sound on the video below...