[EBB Sightings] Tropical Kingbird, Jays and acorns

This morning the Tropical Kingbird was present in the same location
described in earlier posts, flycatching from the wires adjacent to the
maintenance yard. Very nice views from the raised area to the south of
the canal. I was joined by a group of birders whose names I have
unfortunately forgotten; sorry folks!

On another score, I finally found a paper I had been looking for for
months related to an old series of posts about jays and acorns and an
even older thread about variation in W. Scrub Jays. Anyway, this paper
(Adaptive geographic variation in Western Scrub-Jays, Ecology
82:2617-2627, by Elizabeth Bardwell et al. 2001) showed that scrub jays
from pinyon juniper woodlands extract pinyon seeds 30% faster than scrub
jays oak woodlands. Oak scrub jays penetrated and consumed acorns twice
as fast as jays from pinyon-juniper woodlands. Feeding efficiency was
correlated with various measures of bill morphology. Thought some folks
might be interested in the reference.

John Harris
Oakland