Blue Jay trying to eat our wren nestlings – HELP!!!

I second Rachel’s recommendation!  We had Chickadees nesting in our box, and the house sparrows would not leave them alone, even though they couldn’t get through.  We bought a BB gun, and it was the only thing that worked.  We only killed one sparrow after many different instances.  Most of the time, it just scares them away.  Blue Jays are beautiful. but they can be cruel.

I agree with Bookworm 100%.  Sad though it is, nature must be left to look after itself – right now we have numerous birds nesting in our yard and baby bunnies in a nest – we observe from a distance, but never interfere. Occasionally if a hatchling falls out of the nest, we pop it back in, wearing gloves, which is what we were taught to do in a class we took.  However natural predation is exactly that, natural – and I have seen birds taken from our yard by hawks, and cannot do anything about it – it is the way nature works.  These are hard things to accept, and our children invariably want to save the poor creatures, but it is best to teach them to leave well alone and allow nature to work in the way God intended.  Please don’t shoot the birds, not even to frighten them – I see no need for that, and it is cruel in my humble opinion.

Trust me Christie I do know how you feel – I feel the same way, and it breaks my heart when something happens to a creature that God created.  I remember when our dog brought a bird he had caught to us, I was repulsed and upset, but he did what was natural, so I said clever boy, patted him on the head and moved on – did I like it, oh no, we were all upset, but it is the way it is meant to be.  So I see and feel your pain.  Linda

I, too, agree with Bookworm and missingtheshire as far as letting G-d’s Creation does it’s job practicing non-interference, etc… and blue jays aren’t cruel just like the bird of prey that killed 5 of our chickens wasn’t being cruel (of course, he revisited the next day for more, but he definitely won’t be back, now). However, I’m not going to be idle about letting predators eat our livestock just because it”s natural for that particular animal, be it coyote, snake, bird of prey, wild dog, etc…; we will shoot to scare and, if necessary, kill a predator if it goes after livestock; We are a predator to them, too. My hubby had to recently shoot a coyote that was trying to dig under the coop. But I digress…not neccessarily pertinent to this perhaps.

We’ve had many of those teaching opportunities ourselves; most of the time I opt for non-intervention. But there are times when we can intervene. Yesterday, my dd found a fledgling American Robin, minimum 14 days old, (had it’s tail feathers, just trouble flying yet), in the blackberry thorns (close to a nest we knew of) and brought it in. She fed it tons of worms from her worm bin as well as blackberries. We whipped out Comstock’s book and read and learned a bit about it (was a female). By the end of the day, it was hopping out of the box and flying across the kitchen table! So it was time to let it go. We put it in our front yard where dogs can’t go in (fenced in), under another Robin’s nest. By the end of the day, we saw it hopping across the neighbors yard w/an Adult Robin following. We had a similar experience w/a fledging Jay (from a nother close nest we knew of) that hopped over to the neighbors dog; we could’ve stood there and let “nature take it’s course” , but we got it (under threat of Blue Jay dive bombing!) and put it under a tree where several Jays were squawking. It was mildly injured; my dd wanted to bring it in and nurse it but in that situtation, it was a “no”.

Now, we have no idea if either of those little ones survived, but we had a mild intervention opportunity that we decided to take, believing it wasn’t creating an imbalance in the works. Sometimes, that’s not a good idea; knocking off the balance of Nature (like environmentalists do). But we take each situation as it comes. I’m not advocating killing the BL.J w/the BB gun ( I guess my post sounded that way); if your aim is good enough you could just get a tail feather. I chased a rooster out of my yard many times w/my BB gun to keep it away from my roo and hens, didn’t kill it, just popped it on the tail feathers and rear end. A BB gun isn’t the same as a shotgun and can be used for just scaring or a “ping” affect.

Do what you think is best; it may be too late now that the BL. Jays know they are there. Sometimes we can/should help, sometimes we can’t/shouldn’t.

Rachel

I’ve been having trouble with a blue jay this year. He’s chased away my Mockingbird pair, my bluebird pair, and now he’s detroyed my sparrow’s nestlings. I used to go out and listen to the different songs while gardening and even though the blue jays call used to bring up fond memories of camp, all I can think of now is wishing I had more rocks and a better throwing arm. I’ve thought about the BB gun, and I’m not sure I could actually (purposly) kill a bird. Not because I believe we “have to accept nature’s way”. I figure I’m part of nature too and my contribution counts for no less than a hawks action. I just don’t think I’d feel good about it afterwards; except for maybe if meant all my other birds came back and we got new nestlings that were making it out of the nest without being eaten. Actually, now that I think about it, that might make me feel pretty good.In any case, if anyone runs across an effective tactic this side of a BB gun I’d like to hear about it.  Thanks.   

Leslie