took advantage of the break in rain to stretch legs around stow lake in golden gate park around noon today.
besides lots of spring activity in general (notably among the mallards and brewers blackbirds), swallows are back....but the interesing thing was hearing familiar but out-of-place scolding of STELLARS JAYS. i associate scrub jays w/ san francisco and stellars more w/ some of the e bay regional parks. but a friend who lives in bernal heights and works at city college mentioned recent sightings of stellers and the calls today were unmistakable. well, turned out they were mobbing a hapless immature redtail who did not have the adult hawk sense to fly up and away, into differen territory. this youngster flew from one exposed perch to another, getting strafed and yelled at, and--as young redtails seem wont to do--perching on the ground a couple of times.
one of the stellers jays did notice my in-shell peanuts and i was able to lure him very close. not to handfeed (as a couple of the arboretum scrub jays will do) but hopping on the ground to pick up the peanuts from around 3 ft from where i squatted. i've no doubt if they stay around and i return regularly on non-weekends that they will hand tame pretty easily.
besides lots of spring activity in general (notably among the mallards and brewers blackbirds), swallows are back....but the interesing thing was hearing familiar but out-of-place scolding of STELLARS JAYS. i associate scrub jays w/ san francisco and stellars more w/ some of the e bay regional parks. but a friend who lives in bernal heights and works at city college mentioned recent sightings of stellers and the calls today were unmistakable. well, turned out they were mobbing a hapless immature redtail who did not have the adult hawk sense to fly up and away, into differen territory. this youngster flew from one exposed perch to another, getting strafed and yelled at, and--as young redtails seem wont to do--perching on the ground a couple of times.
one of the stellers jays did notice my in-shell peanuts and i was able to lure him very close. not to handfeed (as a couple of the arboretum scrub jays will do) but hopping on the ground to pick up the peanuts from around 3 ft from where i squatted. i've no doubt if they stay around and i return regularly on non-weekends that they will hand tame pretty easily.
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