Visitors To Our Backyard Garden Here In Paradise

I have written often about how much my husband and I enjoy living here just outside of Hollister, California. One of the perks of living here coupled with the serenity of the environment, are the many visitors we have on a daily basis to our backyard garden.

We were living here a couple of years before we discovered that Scrub Jays, beautiful bluebirds that they are, enjoy eating peanuts that they harvest from the shell. So we learned to shop at Costco for the large, economy size bags of peanuts in the shell so we would have enough peanuts to go around for the small family group that became a fixture in our backyard during the last 3 years.

Recently a large, black Corvus has been visiting our backyard, and partaking of the peanuts in the shell that we have learned to place in a shallow cardboard box on our patio.
We have three brown and rust colored squirrels that visit our yard, often together, who help themselves to the peanuts in the shallow box that we have placed on our patio. When the Corvus enters the yard he/she makes a caw, caw sound to let the squirrels know that he/she has arrived. The squirrels don’t leave the yard; instead they share the nuts with the corvus, each taking turns at the shallow nut box, retrieving their prizes.

We have had days when our large black bird brings along a buddy Corvus or perhaps it is a Ms. Corvus; we can’t tell the difference in gender with these birds because both male and female appear to be a solid black. It is quite a sight to see these large birds, which are as big as house cats with wings, as they cautiously side step their way over to the nut box. Sometimes 'our' Corvus is ‘brazen’, and just walks straight up to the box to retrieve his/her nuts. But often our Corvus walks in a sidestep fashion. When a Corvus walks straight it appears to waddle side to side, much like ducks do when they walk.

Back when we broadcasted the peanuts over the bricks of our patio they were left overnight in the open. In time a possum started to visit our yard during the night. I watched this creature on several nights, and saw how he picked up the nuts, grinding the nut cases as he ate the nuts and cases together. One night I could see the possums many sharp grinding teeth, and I understood how it was able to grind the nut cases into a powder that looked much like the saw dust that you see after wood has gone through a power saw.

Every day after the possum was a visitor to our backyard my husband had to go outside to sweep up the groundnut cases and shells that were left on the patio from the visit the night before. The mess the possum made wasn’t what bothered us enough to stop broadcasting/scattering nuts on our patio. What bothered us was after the possum started coming into our yard we noticed that the flock of blue Scrub Jays that fed in our yard every day, dwindled down from a family of six to a family of only two.
Our fear is that the possum, which is a tree climber, ate the remaining jays, yet we don’t know for sure if this is the case. So this is why we now place all our peanuts in the shell into a shallow cardboard box for our friends who now visit only during the day, when the nut box is on the patio.

Every day at dusk my husband takes the box of nuts, and places it inside the garage. He fills the box up again the next morning, and places it on our patio for our wanted furry, and our wanted feathered friends to partake of. One day recently my husband took the nut box, and placed it in the garage early, at 4:00 pm because it had started to rain. Several minutes later I was in my kitchen looking out the window over my sink, and I saw one of the Corvus who visits our nut box, waddling in a straight line toward where the box was supposed to be. As it happens, the nut box is on the patio within 3 feet of one of our patio windows. My cat sits on a wicker chair that is in front of this window.

I heard a loud knock, knock, knock at the double paned, patio window that was followed by a caw, caw, caw. I saw from my kitchen window the large, black Corvus waddling in a straight line back into my view, it turned and looked towards where the nut box is supposed to be, before he took flight. I ran to where my cat was on the chair at the window and her eyes were as big as saucers. The large black bird never came up to the window before but this time he did because he was upset that his nuts weren’t where they should be.

I went to the garage, retrieved the nut box, filled it up, and brought it back to the back patio placing it down where it should have been when our Corvus was looking for it. It was about 15 minutes later when our black-feathered friend returned to enjoy his afternoon nut snack. Sometimes he takes as many as 3 of the large peanuts in the shell into his beak at a time. This day I witnessed our Corvus do precisely this.

Another creature that used to visit our patio during the night to partake of the peanuts in the shell that were broadcasted on the bricks, was a skunk. I witnessed the skunk one night when I flipped on the back yard floodlights, and saw the little creature eating the peanuts in the shell. He or she saw me watching, but wouldn't move away from what it was doing. Once again I couldn't tell the difference between the genders but I am sure the skunk knows who is who. The skunk left the yard without spraying. This was a better outcome than what had happened in the past when a skink visited our yard in the night and was upset by another creature, which resulted in the skunk spraying. The fragrance of skunk is one that is not easily forgotten, and I learned that it is one that travels through double paned windows, easily!

Jackrabbits also visit us here in paradise, but I haven't seen any come into our yard. Instead they sit on the hills on the golf course just outside of our yard, and look into our yard at us, as we work in our garden. It wouldn't surprise me some day to see a jackrabbit eat from our nut box.

We have had many different varieties of birds come visit us but most are not interested in peanuts in the shell. The exceptions are the Scrub Jays, the Corvus, and another exception was a woodpecker that visited us several times last September - December. The woodpecker that visited us and ate from our nut box is called the Northern Flicker.
I told someone I know who is a member of the Audubon Society that this particular woodpecker was in our yard eating the jays’ peanuts, and I was told that the Flicker is not friendly towards Scrub Jays. This person learned from me that the Flicker enjoyed the same peanut in the shell treat that the Scrub Jays enjoyed, and was going to use this information to lure a family of Flickers away from where a family of Scrub Jays were nesting. I guess we will never know for sure if it was the possum or the woodpecker that chased off or ate some of our Scrub Jays. That’s how it goes in Paradise.

Update summer 2010:
In the past couple of weeks we have had five Scrub Jays coming into our yard. It appears that they are nesting somewhere else, away from the pine tree that they used to nest in that is just outside of our fence on the golf course. So we have our answer. The Scrub Jays were 'frightened' away from their 'original' home, and are nesting in a tree further away from our yard. That's why we don't have them visit us as a group, as often as they used to in the past. We still have two Scrub Jays that visit us on a daily basis, that appear to be nesting in a close by pine.

This story is a true-life story of Carol Garnier Dutra
Copyright © 2010 by Carol Garnier Dutra
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