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Blogs by Judith Lawrence
Where Have All The Blue Jays Gone? 2/13/2010 6:39:10 AM
During most winters where I live in Central Ontario Canada, we have an abundance of birds that come to our garden to be fed. We have one feeder filled with seeds and another that holds a suet cake. Woodpeckers, chickadees, and nuthatches feed on the suet cake, while many different birds come to the feeder that holds the seeds. Red squirrels come to feed on the seeds that drop to the ground and usually find a way of getting on the feeder, too, where they just sit and gorge themselves on the bounty that is there. This year, the variety of birds attending the winter feeding station has been far less than normal. In fact, the chickadees and nuthatches have been pretty much the only visitors. The noisy blue jays have been startling by their absence; flocks of red polls and gold finches have not made an appearance, either. We have been concerned, particularly by the absence of the blue jays. There has not been one all winter long, even before the big snow fall in December. At first, we attributed their loss to this huge snow fall but then we remembered they had not been here even before that.
We cannot remember when we first missed them; we cannot remember whether or not they came when we first put out the feeders after the bears went into hibernation. Did they have some sixth sense that warned them about the impending storm, we wonder. We hope that this is the case but we cannot help but be concerned about their situation. Has their population been wiped out or decimated by some dread happening? Noisy and raucous as they are; eating us out of house and home as they do; we miss them--their bright blue feathers and their lively spirit. Yesterday, one lone blue jay visited the feeder. We were glad to see that they hadn't been wiped out completely but is there only one? Perhaps it was a scout for the rest of the flock but, as yet, there have been no more. Perhaps there will be one today.
