As we all know I don't like Stellar's Jays, but I have one that regularly hops along the balcony railing in front of me. I was watching him just now and suddenly realised what he was doing - eating the spiders. I didn't know they did that. This house is an absolute spider haven, and although I have nothing against normal numbers of normal-sized spiders, the bazillions of spiders everywhere* inside and out have reduced my spider sympathy. I liked watching spiders and ants, etc. as a child** and I still watch them a bit, but I no longer carry them outside. Anyway, the carry-outs probably just got immediately eaten by the outsiders.

Looking up Stellar's Jays I see they eat (or gather perhaps it is) more insects when they are feeding their young. They are quiet near their nests. My main objection to them is that they are so raucous, so there must be a nest or two in the Douglas firs to my left. I ran into a Pine Siskin entry, too, which reminded me of driving down East Bay Drive and seeing a dead flock of those tiny birds in the road. It turned out that, as it was winter and their usual watering spot was frozen, they had drunk from a puddle of antifreeze and all been poisoned.

*including Giant House Spiders, an agressive type that lives under my bed, and those peculiar biting ones that aren't big but leave a long-lasting wound.
** maybe that's out-of-the-ordinary I don't know

Labels: spiders birds