Re: [SBB] Recent birds (mostly Hidden Villa), also a weird story

[Bill Bousman <[[email protected]]>]

At 08:37 AM 4/23/05, Garth Harwood wrote:
> On Tuesday 4/19 I had a weird experience at Monte Bello. Rounding a corner 
> on the trail I saw a male deer, its antlers just beginning to grow in and 
> still covered in velvet. It was standing very still, looking right at me, 
> with its ears fully stretched. On its head, right between the antler buds, 
> stood a Western Scrub Jay! The WESJ walked to and fro methodically 
> checking through the deer's fur and plucking things now and then, 
> especially from the ears, both inside and out. The deer was clearly 
> appreciating this service and never so much as blinked, even though it 
> must smart to have ticks plucked out that way. Eventually the bird hopped 
> down to the deer's back and worked it up and down also, finding little 
> except on the neck. Once it hopped up from the shoulder to get another 
> inner-ear goodie.
>
> Finally, I think I know how  some deer deal with all those pests they 
> encounter. I wonder how often this occurs? I had heard of such things on 
> other continents with larger mammals, but I don't recall ever hearing of 
> it here before.

Dear Garth and SBB,

This is a very interesting story.

This may be a fairly common behavior, although infrequently 
observed.  Dixon (Condor 46:204 1944) was surprised to see this behavior in 
Sequoia NP in the 1940s and it was knew to him (and he was an experienced 
field naturalist).  More recently, Isenhart and DeSante (Condor 87:145-147) 
recount multiple observations at and near Palomarin Field Station.  They 
point out that this is observed only in late winter and early spring when 
ticks are most common.  The behavior has also been recorded for Florida 
Scrub-Jays by Fitzpatrick and Woolfenden (Condor 98:422-423).  I recall 
that there is a recent note in Western Birds as well, but I don't have a 
good index.

All of the above is based on a search for "scrub jay" in the SORA 
archive.  If you haven't used this marvelous resource before, then give it 
a try.  Dr. Blair O. Wolfe is one of the main instigators of SORA and we 
are all indebted to him.  Many on this list will remember Blair at the 
Coyote Creek Riparian Station in the late 1980s.  He got his MS under the 
late Dick Mewaldt, studying Black Phoebes.


Bill Bousman
Santa Clara County records compiler 

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