Brian, you must be a science dude! =)

I’m looking at a 15-ml (1-tablespoon) measuring spoon, and it looks huge for the “crop” of a Blue Jay. So I just h ad to peek at the BNA species account (Smith, Tarvin, and Woolfenden, 2013), wherein I see many references to the contents of their stomachs. Oh o f course! But there was this:

“Usually harvests 1-5 acorns or up to 15 beechnuts at a time, depending on size of fruit ( [ https://birdsna.org/Species-Account/bna/species/blujay/references#REF5081 | Darley-Hill and Johnson 1981 ] , [ https://birdsna.org/Species-Account/bna/species/blujay/references#REF5095 | Johnson and Adkisson 1985 ] , Bartlow et al. 2011). Transports acorns by storing 2-3 in its distended throat and anterior esophagus ( [ https://birdsna.org/Species-Account/bna/species/blujay/references#REF5096 | Johnson and Webb 1989 ] ), with one more each in mouth and bill-tip ( [ https://download.ams.birds.cornell.edu/api/v1/asset/24993181?__hstc=226533890.52f7f9f2e092a4336d636176d9f3e659.1545090179026.1545090179026.1545090179026.1&__hssc=226533890.5.1545090179027&__hsfp=1865447962 | Figure 2 ] ). During 3 days, jays made 1270 and 1959 visits to 2 pin oak trees and removed 3175 and 4897 acorns, respectively (Steele et al. 2010). ”

Egadz! Maybe somewhere there’s a conversion factor for 15 beechnuts or 5 acorns (of average sizes) = how many cc?

Just for fun, eh? And to see how your BLJA ranks!

Larry

From: “lcarrigan_55@yahoo.com [ible]”
To: “IBLE”
Sent: Sunday, December 16, 2018 3:32:49 PM
Subject: [IBLE] 15 cubic cm

So…if anybody is interested, I’ve calculated the size of a Blue Jay’s crop. Can you tell I have way too much time on my hands since the Snake River is full of slush ice & unstable shelf ice along the banks, shutting down my fly-fishing?!

I watched how many sunflower seeds & whole kernels of corn, the jay takes in at an avg visit to the feeder. And, what I get is an avg of 15 cc (or 15 ml) for its crop size. Just find that fascinating!

Brian Carrigan
Blackfoot

Thank you to everyone who reassured me that I wasn’t just sending things
into a black hole. Sounds like everyone got my original post (from yesterday
around 3:30) this morning, and this morning’s not too long after I posted
it. My second one from yesterday apparently did go into the black hole.

Anyway, today’s ride produced a Dipper, my first ever along the Boise River.
(!!!) I know some folks have seen them up near Diversion Dam, but this was
the first time I’ve even seen one in years. I had stopped at a bend in the
river, about midway between Willow Lane and Silver Lake, to tell a friend
about the 2 Red-tailed Hawks I’d just seen at Willow Lane (yes, one was the
extremely dark morph). I saw a bird fly along the shore, low over the water,
and it made a sound that was not in my usual repertoire. I walked my bike
back a few feet and there was the Dipper, bobbing along on a narrow log that
was partially submerged. At about that time Susan caught up, and we all got
great looks at the little guy. And while we were watching, a Cooper’s Hawk
flew across the river and posed in a tree above us. Needless to say, we
didn’t see the Dipper again.

Bald Eagles (2) were again in evidence, one at Quinn’s and one at Veteran’s.
And the dark morph RTHA was between the playing fields and the river at
Willow Lane. Couldn’t find the Northern Pintail, but I did manage 39 species
and 5 were raptors. (I love winter birding!)

Tom McCabe, Boise

Hi Tom, et al. Yes, I tried twice to report 910 Trumpeter Swans in fields around Am. Falls Reservoir yesterday, and both were rejected by IBLE. Glad to see you got through on this one.
Chuck Trost

Always forward, never straight…

> On Dec 17, 2018, at 10:33 AM, ‘Tom McCabe’ tmccabe9@cableone.net [ible] wrote:
>
> Yesterday I tried to post my sighting of a very black/dark chocolate Red-tailed Hawk near Willow Lane. I first sent the email at 3:37 in the afternoon, and again in the evening. Neither ever showed up. I don’t know whether this one will, but I thought I’d try.
>
> Tom McCabe, Boise
>
>

I received it at 11:24 a.m. today. We have a dark morph here, too in east
Emmett. He loves the canal path and orchards.

Liz Medes

Tom,

I did receive your posting about this hawk at 10:25 this morning, so it has made it to the group.

I have had times when Yahoo has been slow to deliver random messages in the past, and it could be this problem which only seems to affect a message here and there. However, if you or anyone else continues to experience this, please let me know.

Jane
co-owner

________________________________
From: ible@yahoogroups.com on behalf of ‘Tom McCabe’ tmccabe9@cableone.net [ible]
Sent: Monday, December 17, 2018 9:33 AM
To: ible@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [IBLE] Is anyone else having trouble posting?

Yesterday I tried to post my sighting of a very black/dark chocolate Red-tailed Hawk near Willow Lane. I first sent the email at 3:37 in the afternoon, and again in the evening. Neither ever showed up. I don’t know whether this one will, but I thought I’d try.

Tom McCabe, Boise

So…if anybody is interested, I’ve calculated the size of a Blue Jay’s crop. Can you tell I have way too much time on my hands since the Snake River is full of slush ice & unstable shelf ice along the banks, shutting down my fly-fishing?!

I watched how many sunflower seeds & whole kernels of corn, the jay takes in at an avg visit to the feeder. And, what I get is an avg of 15 cc (or 15 ml) for its crop size. Just find that fascinating!

Brian Carrigan
Blackfoot

Eamon Harrity and I covered mostly the University of Idaho campus for
today’s Moscow-Pullman CBC. We started the day at the University of Idaho
Sheep Farm, where we found 2-3 continuing BROWN-HEADED COWBIRDS, 3 Brewer’s
Blackbirds, and our only Merlin of the day. Along the Palouse River east
of the Stateline Wetlands, we had a Marsh Wren at the railroad crossing of
the river. We missed a lot of expected birds at the UI Arboretum, but were
lucky to pick up an adult NORTHERN GOSHAWK with prey, relocated multiple
times. We added the other two local Accipiter species between the nearby
Sand Road Wetlands and the UI Golf Course. The main campus was unusually
quiet, but with a lot of effort we tracked down a flock of 8-10 Audubon’s
and one MYRTLE YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER. A second check of the Sheep Farm,
during the afternoon, produced a count of at least 14 Brewer’s Blackbirds
and the Cowbirds, again. Red-tailed Hawks were abundant in most areas,
including a couple of Harlan’s Hawks. Bohemian Waxwings and Common
Redpolls have not made an appearance on the Palouse this fall (I’ve had 2
of the waxwings in the Lewis-Clark Valley).

Good Birding,

Cal Lundblad
Moscow, ID

I tried to post this earlier today, but it doesn’t show up on the Yahoo site
and it never came back as an email. So here goes:

Now that the ice has abated, I’ve been able to get back on the greenbelt.
And despite the construction between Esther Simplot and Veterans Parks, Bald
Eagles have been a near daily occurrence.

But today the real treat was an almost totally black hawk near the Willow
Lane bike park. When we first saw him, his red tail was not visible, and I
started thinking that we had something really unusual. But once he flew and
I could see his red tail, I thought it had to be a Harlan’s. And while I’ve
seen Harlan’s before, I’ve never seen a bird so uniformly black/chocolate.
His beak and legs were quite a contrasting yellow against the darkness of
his body, and even the red tail was a muted dark red.

When I got home and looked at Crossley, all the Harlan’s they pictured had
too much white mottling, but Sibley’s had the exact bird (lower right on
page 122 of the 2000 edition), except even Sibley’s picture isn’t as densely
dark as this bird. Sibley does not classify this bird as a Harlan’s, rather
it is just listed as a variation of a Red-tail. Either way, it’s quite a
striking bird!

Tom McCabe, Boise

Yesterday I tried to post my sighting of a very black/dark chocolate
Red-tailed Hawk near Willow Lane. I first sent the email at 3:37 in the
afternoon, and again in the evening. Neither ever showed up. I don’t know
whether this one will, but I thought I’d try.

Tom McCabe, Boise

Rexburg Christmas Bird Count is Saturday, Dec 22. We will meet at the Burger King at the south Rexburg exit at 8 am. Email me at riversilt@gmail.com if you’d like to participate.

Thanks,

Darren Clark
Rexburg, ID
riversilt@gmail.com