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
