There are ten different species of jays in North America, and Arizona is home to half of them. Depending on what part of the state you are in, it is possible to see the following five species here in Arizona: Mexican Jay, Pinyon Jay, Gray Jay, Steller’s Jay and Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jay.
The most common jay species in our area is the Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jay, formerly called a Western Scrub-Jay. Many years ago, the Western Scrub-Jay species was split into two “new” species. The coastal race became the California Scrub-Jay, and the intermountain race was renamed from Western to Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jay.
There are two other Scrub-Jay species in North America. One is the Florida Scrub-Jay, which as the name suggests, occurs in Florida. The fourth species of Scrub-Jay has a very limited, restricted range. It is called an Island Scrub-Jay, and it only occurs on one of the eight islands that makes up the Channel Islands National Park off the coast of California.
For many years, I’ve had a desire to see an Island Scrub-Jay, requiring a visit to the one island in the entire world where this species is found—Santa Cruz Island. The timing for such a trip finally opened up this past week, as Gayla and her siblings planned a Disneyland trip, so we made a quick trip over to California. We drove over on Thursday and drove back on Saturday.
Friday morning, I got up before 4:00 a.m., and was on my way shortly thereafter. My first birding stop was a park in Ventura where there was some good native habitat. I birded there from dawn until about 7:45, and saw a number of “California” bird species, including California Towhee, California Thrasher, and California Scrub-Jay.
My next stop was Ventura Harbor, where I took a 1½ hour boat ride out to Santa Cruz Island. The boat stopped briefly at Scorpion Bay where about 80% of the passengers disembarked. My destination was the second stop, Prisoners Harbor. Within in two minutes of setting foot on the island, I had spotted my first Island Scrub-Jay. Success!
Over the next several hours, I continued to observe many Island Scrub-Jays, which was very fulfilling and rewarding. This whole experience was unique in that it was both the first and the last time I will ever see this species in my life. It was also unique, as this was my third Scrub-Jay species in three days. On Wednesday, the day before we drove over to California, I was birding at Granite Basin and saw both Steller’s Jays and Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jays.
Onto my next goal--I still have one more Scrub-Jay species to add to my life list—the Florida Scrub-Jay. I hope I will have the opportunity to see this species sometime in the future. Locally, I am on the hunt to see Pinyon Jays, as I have yet to see one this year. If you have any frequenting the feeders in your yard, I would love an invitation to come out to see you and them! Please give me a call at the store.
As a final reminder, today, Thursday, September 18th, from 5:30-8:00 p.m., the Central Arizona Land Trust (CALT) will be hosting its “Wide Open Spaces Celebration” at The Federal on Goodwin Street. CALT is launching its “Birds of a Feather” campaign to raise funds to place a conservation easement on 640 acres on the historic Date Creek Ranch.
As part of the celebration this evening, I will be presenting a program on the birds of Date Creek Ranch. This is a fundraiser, and includes appetizers, a cash bar and both a silent and live auction. For registration and more information, visit CALT’s website at www.centralazlandtrust.org.
Until next week, Happy Birding!
Eric Moore is the owner of The Lookout, in Prescott, where you will find a Hallmark department, wild bird products, and Swarovski and Vortex optics. Eric has been an avid birder for over 60 years. Eric can be contacted at eric@thelookoutaz.com.
Orioles
Baby birds
Bird seed consumption/insect diet
Hummingbird numbers
Birds attacking their reflection in the window
New Bird Walk Schedule
I have been doing a lot of digiscoping on this trip—using my Swarovski spotting scope and my iPhone to take both still shots and video. After I get home I will get some these loaded onto The Lookout Facebook page so you can see what I saw!
This past weekend was the winter solstice, the shortest day and the longest night of the year. While I personally do not like the cold, I do love the winter night sky. Each morning when I go outside to retrieve the newspaper, I like to just pause, and look at the heavens and take in the wonder of the night sky.
Maybe like you, unfortunately I live in a neighborhood where some of my neighbors leave their outside lights on all night long. Why? I have no idea. To me it is annoying, and a poor use of precious resources. We live in a time when we need to be so mindful of how we use energy.
One may think it is a little thing, a 100 watt bulb left on all night, but multiply that by hundreds and thousands of lights left on all night and what a huge impact this has on energy use.
There is a dark sky ordinance in some communities. I personally like living in a community where people value dark skies. I like living in a neighborhood where there aren’t any street lights.
Another issue to consider is the impact of lights on wild birds, especially when they are migrating. Lights at night disorient while birds, resulting in window strikes, resulting in an untimely death.
Several months ago the Courier ran an article about outdoor lights at night, and the impact on wild birds. I concur.
