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OREGON JAY

Other common names: Camp Robber; Whiskey Jack.

Museum Specimens - Longmire (2700); Eagle Peak (4000).

If sufficient space could be devoted to writing fully about this favorite of park visitors, it would require a whole book by itself, and then all would not be told. Being limited to a page or two, only a few features can be touched upon briefly. All visitors know the camp robber - a name that depicts him as more of a villian than he really is. There is no person, motorist or hiker, visiting the park who does not get enjoyment, entertainment and fun watching him. He acts as host to all picnic parties, quietly joining in and helping himself to a share of the food that he, at least, considers he is entitled to. He is always quietly dressed and generally sedately mannered - not boisterous like his cousin the Steller's jay. But he does have a bright, beady eye!

Oregon jays inhabit all sides of the park, in the thick timber to snow line. They are commonly met with along the trails, even in the deepest forest. More birds are seen, of course, near houses and civilization, but if you are camping for a week in some out-of-the-way place they come to visit you and remain throughout your stay. They eat almost anything you have to offer, and have a way of hiding an over-supply in the coniferous trees nearby.

They are hardy birds and the cold and snow of winter have little effect on them. At that time of year they do a great deal of good in the park, seeking through the hanging moss in search of beetle larvae and other injurious pests of our forests. In summer they eat anything from a piece of angel-food cake to a "flap-jack", and are very fond of raw, growing mushrooms, one of which goes down in two gulps! They like bacon or scraps of meat and, being meat eaters, have learned that chipmunks, killed on the highway by hit-and-run drivers, are also to their liking and a comparatively new source of food supply.

These jays have solid gray underparts. The forehead is gray, almost white; back of head and nape of neck black, then a band of gray, with the remaining upperparts brownish-gray. The young birds are darker and lack the white forehead. All have short wings and long tail and should easily be identified by the unhurried glide through the air.

There is much mystery concerning the nesting of these birds. In the old days we had stories that their nests had never been found. Rewards of $25.00 and up were offered by museums and collectors for a nest and eggs, with no orders filled. The truth was, and is, that they are very hard to find, and in the good old days of egg-collecting any oologist would gladly have paid the price for such treasures. The nest is thick-walled, made of twigs and moss, and three or four pale-green eggs with brown spots are laid early in April.

There is no better place to get acquainted with these friendly, interesting birds than at the Golden Lakes ranger cabin. Here they are not too spoiled by the presence of human beings and so are just natural. The cabin may be unoccupied for several months, but by the time someone has turned the key in the lock they are gliding in around him. From then on, as long as the cabin is occupied, they are good neighbors and soon feed from ones hand or knee and will come into the cabin if the door is open. When the fire is lighted in the morning and the first puff of smoke ascends through the chimney, it is their signal and the birds come gliding in from all sides, knowing that breakfast is the next thing on the program.

I thrilled while watching a bird start some 150 feet away and come slowly gliding straight at my head, unafraid, and land just above my head on the cabin porch! No other bird does this. Our naturalist, Mr. Brockman, told me he once visited this cabin in winter and had to dig his way through the snow down to one of the windows to get in. Before he had crawled through, a jay was on the sill, pecking at a half-burned candle left from the year before.

Visitors confuse this bird with our Clark's crow or nutcracker. Please remember the latter is a crow in actions and has not the graceful glide of the jay. Although some of their colors are similar, the continual flashings of white of the nutcracker should identify it.

While the range of the Oregon jay is confined to the west side of the Cascades, another form - the gray jay - ranges on the east side of the mountains. Although our birds of Rainier have recently been identified as the former bird, the two ranges almost meet, so that many of our birds may be of mixed races. The west-side birds are supposed to be browner on the back, but what is to prevent a brunette gentleman from the west side from choosing a pale, bleached mate from the east side, or vice versa - the pale gentleman from the east choosing a "nut browne mayde" from the west. And there you have it - obscurus obscurus or obscurus griseus - so what?

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STELLER'S JAY

Other common names: Blue Jay.

Museum Specimens - Sunshine Point (2000); Longmire (2700).

An excitable scamp, a play boy, a boisterous bluffer but a handsome bird, is the Steller's jay. We in the park like him. He is always so full of action and mischief - scrapping with a chipmunk or perhaps an Oregon jay. In winter his beautiful coat shows up brilliantly against the snow. You may have food out for the birds and the Oregon jays and perhaps a varied thrush are seeking their fill, when down from above, apparently from nowhere, drops a flashing blue form with crest raised to scare the feeders into leaving the repast exposed. Only for a moment, however, for the other birds know this bluffer and return to their meal.

Like the Oregon jay these birds are common in the park, but are not as numerous as the camp-robbers. They range from boundaries to timber line, but favor more open country such as the Nickel Creek burn. They can be very noisy when excited and they seem to imitate the call of other birds, especially the scream of the red-tailed hawk. Many a deer's life has been saved by the scolding of this bird at the approach of the red-hatted hunter. At times they have an odd way, while feeding, of starting on the lower branches of some tall tree and almost climbing from limb to limb until the top of the tree is reached. In spring, during the nesting season, they are absolutely quiet, flitting along like ghosts through the forest, following along behind one until he is a safe distance from their nest.

The Steller's jay is far from being a "blue-jay". Its head and back is black, wings and tail blue with black stripes, with short blue feathers on the lower forehead. The underparts are black from the throat down, turning to blue on the belly. There are bluish-white stripes on the throat. The conspicuous feature about the bird is the black crest which it raises and lowers at all times in a more or less excitable manner.

Steller's jays begin nesting early in May in the park - a month later than the birds in Puget Sound. Mated pairs travel together for some time before the nesting begins. They build a rather bulky nest of coarse twigs on the outside, holding a deep cup of mud lined with rootlets. Three to five pale-green eggs with brownish spots are laid. The nest is generally placed in a small coniferous tree.

There is an old saying among oologists that no matter how difficult it is to find some bird's nest, the bird itself has a certain weakness, if you can discover it, that will show you the location. This is true if applied to the Steller's jay, and its weakness may be termed "curiosity". I have learned to seek their nests along trails in the woods or along country roads. They seem to desire a certain amount of excitement and wish to be entertained while incubating. Most of the nests found are not fifty feet from the trail.

Another specialty these interesting birds have is invariably starting their nest-building with something white or light-colored. In town it may be a bit of white paper or a white rag, while in more rural surroundings they may use light-colored grass or "excelsior" if they can find it. I remember finding a new nest in a Tacoma gulch. At the bottom was a bit of newspaper and the date of issue was April 4. Truly a cornerstone for the nesting edifice.

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AMERICAN MAGPIE

The magpie is included on our park list by the uncommon, though persistent, migration of a few birds in winter through the mountain passes from Yakima Valley. They generally appear at Paradise seeking food around the buildings or scraps left in the snow by skiers. There can be little else for them to find with twenty feet of snow on the level. They are hardy birds, full of wisdom, and can look out for themselves.

It is a striking sight to see one of these handsome, black and white birds with its short wings and long tail, sailing over the snowcovered landscape. In plumage it has a black head and back separated from the purplish-green iridescence of the wings by a broad white band. The long tail also shows this iridescence. Underparts on throat and breast are black, changing abruptly to white on the belly. The bill is heavy and black.

Magpies are April nesters. When possible the old nest is used and repaired year after year until sometimes it assumes huge proportions of thorny twigs and branches. The nest cup is placed near the top and a canopy of thorny twigs erected over it for protection. A front and back entrance is left open for the birds to enter and leave. Six to nine whitish eggs, heavily covered with light brown, are laid.

As is the case with nearly all members of the jay and crow family, the hand of man is against the magpies. They have a bad reputation among the ranchers and stock growers, perhaps not so much because of what they do as of what they might do. Fortunately for their race, they raise large families so can hold their own in an open, unsettled sage-brush country.

The partial migration of some of these birds to the Puget Sound country in winter seems strange to the ornithologist. Why do just a few come? They never remain to nest but find their way back to the dry country when spring arrives. The Fort Lewis reservation is a favorite winter ground, and some birds come as far as the Tacoma tideflats.

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AMERICAN RAVEN

Museum Specimen - Narada Falls (4100).

We have a saying in Washington that where the raven is found the crow is absent, and where the crow is found the raven is absent. This rule holds good in the park, and we have no crows.

We find ravens distributed on all sides of "The Mountain". They seek the high, perpendicular rock sides as nesting sites and, unlike the crows, do not build in colonies. Each pair has sole right to a certain cliff and if not disturbed will remain in possession for years. They add their part to the wild mountain scenery and their coarse, guttural noises and croaks resound over the crag-covered hills and valleys. During the summer they are more in evidence. Now and then a motorist catches a glimpse of a dark body as one leaves the road ahead with the remains of a chipmunk or squirrel in its bill, for they have learned that the auto highway now furnishes such repasts. In fall and winter they travel about in families, stopping at camp sites, road camps and hotels looking for the garbage left by visitors and workers.

Ravens can be identified from crows by their larger size and by their rough, guttural croaks instead of the common "caw" of the crows. They have a proportionately longer tail, more rounded at the end, that can be identified in flight.

Nesting begins as early as March. Like the Steller's jay, the birds have traveled in pairs for some time. At this period the male may sometimes be seen performing in the air for the benefit of his dusky mate, turning somersaults backward, etc. - a wonderful and winning exhibition to her and an interesting one to the observer. A fresh nest is made each year even if the same locality is chosen. Small, coarse twigs are used to form a bulky basket which is lined with soft, shredded cedar or bark fibre and with wool or hair if obtainable. From six to eight eggs are laid, of a pale green color spotted or marked with various shades of brown. These markings vary greatly on the individual eggs, some being heavily covered and others almost without markings. The young do not leave the nest before they are fully feathered.

Ravens are not equally distributed throughout the State. They may be found in certain mountainous sections of the Cascades, then perhaps are not seen again until the ocean beach is reached, where another group may live. East of the mountains they are found in certain sections where the rocky cliffs stand out over the sage-brush plains.

We have collected birds from different sections of the State and have had them identified. While the latest A.O.U. list gives the range of the Northern raven (C. C. principalis) as reaching southward to Washington State, our birds collected have been recognized as the straight American raven (C. C. sinuatus), although some birds do "approach" principalis. It is interesting to study their nesting habits in eastern Washington where the country is more open. The birds often select abandoned sheds and houses, as well as cliffs, as nesting sites. Some of these deserted places have been used for years by a pair of birds. If a broad shelf has been left, that site is often used. The nests of different years will appear side by side - from the oldest and most dilapidated to the present year's nest. The floor of the room will be covered with sticks and debris and we wonder why the birds do not use some of the old material in the new nest. This is never done, the birds preferring to bring new material, sometimes carrying it great distances. In addition to sticks, they will bring old animal bones, bits of wire, pieces of auto tires and inner tubes - all a collection of junk. Sheep's wool is collected for nest lining.

In looking over the country for nesting sites, one has only to sit in the automobile and examine the distant buildings through binoculars. If the male bird is on the roof alone, then the female is on eggs inside. A nest built on a cliff will sometimes be taken over by a pair of prairie falcons for their own use. The ravens just quietly choose another site nearby. They know better than to dispute with their royal neighbors.

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WESTERN CROW

It will not take much space to write about the crow in the park for the reason that it is not found here. Our two records consist of one bird observed by the park naturalist flying over the Nisqually corner of the park, and a record in 1957 of four birds seen in a tree just 40 feet inside the entrance gate. While crows are more than common on the Tacoma prairies, they do not seem to come into or over the high foot hills.

Crows are sagacious birds, and, being prolific breeders, should be kept in check. While they do some good in destroying insects and small mammals, they are fond of eggs, nestlings and young birds. Of late years the meadow-lark has suffered by the crow's finding and eating its eggs, leaving the torn-up nests on the grass as evidence. At times they will play havoc with a brood of tiny ring-necked pheasants. While one crow will engage the attention of the mother bird, other crows will dart down, seize a small victim and quickly swallow it. I have watched this more than once.

While the local Sportsman's Association has done a good job in checking the western crow, it has made a mistake in killing off nearly all our little northwestern crows, (corvus brachyrhynchos caurinus) formerly found along our Sound beaches. This little addition is not an egg eater and never strays more than a hundred yards from the beach, living entirely on marine life and crustaceae.

Western crows build a bulky nest of twigs and rootlets lined with strips of bark and root fibre. The nest is deep-cupped and four to six pale bluish-green eggs, spotted and marked with black and brown, are laid. They nest in April. The nest is placed in a small fir, alder or willow at no great distance from the ground.

Altogether, we are quite contented to have the crow stay outside our park boundaries, and will not at any time offer him any inducements or National Park Service.

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CLARK'S NUTCRACKER

Other common names: Clark's Crow; Pine Crow; Camp Robber.

Museum Specimens - Paradise Valley (5400).

The Clark's nutcracker is our show bird of the park. It is he that interests and entertains the visiting public at Paradise and Yakima Park and is on the job from daylight till dark, begging for peanuts, scolding and frightening the chipmunks and ground squirrels posing for the camera, and in many other ways attracting the attention of the visitors. So interested do they become in this bird that they go to the museum for further information regarding it and to identify it from the Oregon jay or camp robber.

The early history of this bird dates back to our earliest west. They first became known to science when Lewis and Clark brought back specimens on their memorable expedition. These new birds caused great excitement, we may be sure, in Philadelphia, then the center of ornithology. Naturalists almost fought to obtain specimens in order to describe and name this new bird. We read that Audubon himself tried but, not rating well with the members of the Academy of Science, Philadelphia, was unsuccessful. Wilson, the father of American Ornithology, named and described this bird in 1811 from skins taken on the Columbia River. Fortunately, it was named in honor of one of the two great leaders who first obtained the specimens.

Clark's nutcracker, or Clark's crow, as it is often called, might be classed as a link between the crow and the jay. In action and nesting he is all crow, but in his coloring end habits he resembles the jay. We must not forget, however, that he has plenty of originality!

These birds, smaller than the crow and larger than the jay, are gray in color with black wings. The central tail feathers are black, the rest of the tail white. The wings also show white markings on the secondary feathers. The white shows plainly in flight, identifying them from the jays.

We know little of their nesting habits and the nests are rarely found. British Columbia collectors, seeking their nests in February at an altitude of 7000 feet or more, inform me that some years they find a few nests and other years none. It was interesting to learn from them that the majority of sets contained only two eggs instead of three to five as reported by other collectors. The nests were crow-like in composition and very thickly walled; they had to be as the incubating period was during the mid-winter weather. How the birds could survive through this cold and the snow storms is difficult to imagine.

It would be extremely difficult to find or see a nest in our alpine trees. They are so covered with snow and moss that a nest would be completely hidden from below, and only some accidentally dropped nesting material on fresh snow could, or might be the clue to the nesting site. The eggs are a pale-green with brownish spots chiefly at the larger end. The young do not appear until fully grown.

When the summer visitors have gone and hotels are closed, the birds revert to their natural conditions. It is interesting to study them then, when they are more scattered and away from the camp grounds. We come across small groups feeding on the cone seeds of the white-barked pine which seem the principal item of food throughout the fall and winter. We see them making quite long flights, sometimes high in the air, coming out of some canyon or, at evening, going down into one. In winter they are alive and alert to all that is going on. Now that we have skiers in the park it means an added source of food, and they are not slow in coming to the doors of the winter cabins along with the Oregon jays.

Although the majority of our birds are seen about Paradise Valley and Yakima Park, we do meet them at high altitudes all around the Mountain, and in winter an occasional bird will wander down to Longmire.

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Descriptions continued...