[EBB Sightings] Killer Shrub Jays

Hi, all.
  I guess maybe most/all of us know this, but
jays--along with other corvids--are among the threats
to the endangered marbled murrelet, not to mention all
the other species. This is a major reason that folks
fought to keep most of the Headwaters Forest Preserve
off-limits to two-legged creatures. Corvids follow
humans, we being a rather messy lot, and once in an
area the birds endanger murrelet eggs and chicks.
  It's the natural order (as was the loss of a dove in
my back yard to a Coop and of the hummingbird I
mourned online a week or two ago). But we humans have
a role, given the complexities of ecosystems. (Please
know I'm not blaming anyone--especially in (sub)urban
areas.)
Alan Howe
North Oakland
--- Phila Rogers  wrote:

> 
> 
> Dear Birders:
> 
> Since witnessing a Shrub Jay slaughter a Lesser
> Goldfinch a few days
> ago, I've decided to take down my niger feeder. 
> When the jay first
> began scattering the feeding birds, I thought it was
> to dominate the
> feeders by scaring off other birds.  Now I know
> better. I'm uncertain
> about the details seeing only the jay as he was
> dispatching the
> goldfinch with a few powerful blows with its heavy
> beak.  It picked up
> the limp yellow bird and flew off while I, helpless
> to intercede
> pounded on the window.  I was furious and in an act
> of mindless
> vengeance I looked for its nest with rasping
> offspring prepared to
> knock it down.  I changed my mind.  
> I can only hope that when the jay young are
> successfully fledged, that
> the jays will go back to being simply aggressive.
> 
> Phila Rogers
> 
> 
>       
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