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DEAR JOAN: My peaceful backyard has been taken over by a pair of loud, bold, aggressive blue jays.
It started about a week ago with one bird harassing my cat, who likes to lie out in the sun and doesn’t hunt. I started chasing the bird away from my cat, hoping he would figure out that the cat is no threat to him.
This week there is now a pair of blue jays and they are very bold. I can get within 5 feet of them when they are on low branches. I also noticed the resident mockingbird that returns each spring is no longer around, no doubt run off by the big blue bullies!
I’ve considered a super soaker water gun to hose the blue jays away. Currently, I am trying large sheets of plastic foam to block their view of the cat as he lays about in the sun. It seems to work for a short while, but is not 100 percent.
Do you have any suggestions for returning my backyard into a shared space? Will this quiet down once the blue jays settle in? Please help!
Yvonne, Dublin
DEAR YVONNE: First off, blue jays can be annoying and bullying in their own right, but they don’t live in California. I think you’re dealing with California scrub-jays. Knowing that won’t help you live peacefully with them, but at least you can name your enemy.
Scrub-jays, along with crows, are considered the chief bully birds of the neighborhood. It doesn’t help that they are omnivores, meaning they’ll eat just about anything, from the sunflower seeds in the feeder to babies and eggs of other birds, including those of their own species.
Some people absolutely hate them. I’m not one of those people, although I do understand how the birds get under people’s skin.
Looking at the situation from the scrub-jay’s perspective, they see your cat as a threat, and being scrub-jays, they don’t back down from threats. As this is mating and nesting season, they are even more determined to keep predators away.
Even though your cat has shown no signs of aggression or inclination to pursue them, the scrub-jays are acting on instinct.
It’s doubtful they will ever fully accept your cat, but they might become less anxious about it as time progresses and the baby birds are grown and leave the nest.
Until then, I would ask you not to do anything to drive them away. They most likely have a nest with eggs or babies in it, and you don’t want to them to abandon their young.
The mother scrub-jay sits on her eggs for around 19 days. Then the babies will stay in the nest another 19 until they’ve grown their feathers and are able to fly. So after about a month, you can see how the cat and birds are getting along, and if the jays are still being annoying, you can try evicting.
Take in your bird feeders and remove birdbaths. You can hang reflective ribbons and objects in your trees.
I don’t know how well this product works, but there are CDs on the market that have the sounds of jays in distress, and other Top 40 bird hits.
The sounds don’t have to be played loudly, so they shouldn’t annoy the neighbors. The CDs go for around $20, and purportedly won’t drive off other bird species. I’d say it’s worth a try — and if you do, let me know how it worked.
