[EBB Sightings] quiet returns

Yesterday at Huckleberry (Oakland hills) two scrub jays were  
imitating red-taileds. Also, the Eastern Phoebe has not returned to  
my yard in south Berkeley, but I am sure of my identification. We  
keep bees on the top of the house, which attracts Bl. Phoebes all  
year round, and I think in turn attracted the E. Phoebe. I too am  
awaiting the white and golden crowneds--none yet.
Lisa



On Sep 7, 2009, at 4:27 PM, Phila Rogers wrote:

> Greetings Birders:
> After several days of almost continuous jay squawking, relative  
> silence has returned to my Berkeley Hills neighborhood.  My posting  
> about all that commotion brought a most interesting response from  
> Alan Krakauer who is a post-doc at the Patricelli Lab at UC Davis 
> (Dept. of Evolution and Ecology)  He says one of his colleagues is  
> studying "cacophonous aggregations" among shrub jays similar to the  
> better known 'magpie funerals' -- a group response to seeing a dead  
> jay on the ground.  My question to him was whether Steller's Jays  
> also take part in this ritual because both jay species were equally  
> agitated.  I must say that I am glad the 'wake' is over.  Like them  
> or not (and I've been distressed at times seeing them attack and  
> kill smaller birds) jays are remarkably clever birds (see Judith  
> Dunham's recent post from the UC Botanical Garden about jay's  
> convincing mimicking of both Red-tailed and Cooper's Hawks).
> Within the last several days there have been reported early  
> arrivals of Hermit Thrushes and before that -- Ruby-crowned  
> Kinglets.  For almost 40 years I've recorded the arrival dates of  
> Golden-crowned Sparrows in upper Strawberry Canyon (north fork).   
> Although arrival now would be the earliest for my records, seems  
> like I'd better start making my early morning rounds.
> --Phila Rogers
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