Scrub Jays are Moving In

I posted recently about all the spring action in my yard - including some new neighbors helping themselves to my bark mulch.  Now some neighbors are tearing apart the liner of our hanging flower basket.

 
The liner is made out of coconut fiber, and it apparently makes pretty good nesting material.

A pair of Western Scrub-Jays (Aphelocoma californica) have been working on it for a few days now.

According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's website - All About Birds.org - "Scrub-jay nests are made of a basket of twigs lined with rootlets, fine strands of plant fibers, and livestock hair. Nests take about 10 days to build and are about 6 inches (15 centimeters) across when finished. Both members of a pair help with building."

Oh well - I hope they enjoy my fine strands of plant fiber!

Want to provide your neighbors with Coconut fibers?

Battle of the Ospreys at Camassia

On a recent trip to Camassia Natural Area, I was lucky enough to catch some interesting Osprey behavior on film.

The Ospreys have a nest atop a cell phone tower, just outside the park's boundary.  When I first spotted the nest, there were two adults in it.  After a few minutes, a third adult Osprey flew in, and they all had a bit of a scuffle.

The third Osprey was not this year's offspring because this was on April 15th - right at the beginning of the nesting season.  It could have been a chick from the previous year - I'm told that sometimes they return with the parents, and may help guard the nest.  If that was the case here, its help did not seem to be appreciated.  Maybe it was an unrelated bird competing for the nest site.  Who knows?

Watch this montage of photos and see what you think...