Why don’t blue jays stay on Park Point? They avoid merlins.

Q: I live on Park Point in Duluth and see large flocks of blue jays return in May each year. They hang around in noisy groups for two to three weeks, then disappear from the Point, without fail. I see them all the time in various parts of Duluth. There is plenty of food, water and nesting sites here, so no one I’ve talked to can figure out why they don’t stick around in the summer.

A: This is a fascinating head-scratcher, so I checked in with Laura Erickson, a bird expert who keeps a close eye on blue jays and lives in Duluth herself. She provided the answer:

“The problem with Park Point for nesting blue jays is that merlins also nest there. I’ve definitely seen blue jays on Park Point in summer, but they’re few and far between because they really do their best to avoid merlins, and Park Point has a lot of wide-open spaces between stands of trees, making it harder for jays to elude hawks and falcons. Blue jays are extremely partial to oak trees, so the neighborhoods rich in those see more nesting jays than anywhere else in town. They do nest near my yard in the Lakeside neighborhood, but not as abundantly as in neighborhoods where there are lots of oaks. Meanwhile, our spring and fall blue jay migrations are wonderful. A few overwinter, but not many in most years.”

So, Duluth’s jays have figured out that it’s safer to build their nests away from Park Point to avoid speedy, agile bird-hunting falcons called merlins.

Q: I’ve placed my bird feeder over a flower garden, which I think helps attract birds. But there’s weedy growth underneath the feeder from the seeds spilled by birds. I seem to recall that there’s a kind of birdseed that’s been treated to not sprout, do you have any suggestions?

A: I think your feeder location sounds ideal for birds, and it’s a shame that their spillage adds to your weeding chores. I talked to the manager of a local wild bird store, who advises that he’s not aware of any seed treated so it won’t germinate (this would probably involve heat, and this might change the nutritional value of the seed). He did have some good alternatives to suggest:

Sunflower chips are the shelled version of black oiler sunflower seeds, favored by a high number of bird species, so your backyard birds should gravitate to this food.

A: Good question, and for starters it might help to regard hummingbirds as loners with a chip on their shoulder. They lack a sharing gene, and fight to keep their hold on a feeding territory throughout the year. In August, when you wrote in, the ruby-throated hummingbirds in our region were beginning their migration, and needed more calories to put on fat to fuel their long flights. So, they were feeling very feisty about having to share a food resource with other hummingbirds. I recently returned from a bird tour to southeast Arizona, where we visited many feeding stations with multiple feeders. No matter how many feeders were spaced around a yard or nature center, the conflict between the little birds was constant. Bottom line: There are many more hummingbirds passing through our area in the fall, meaning that there many more aerial fights.

Q: I heard a weird bird sound in the woods recently and my Merlin phone app identified it as a pileated woodpecker’s call. I’ve never heard this before and wonder if these woodpeckers are rare?

A: Pileateds are striking-looking birds with black and white feathers and red crests, and are our largest woodpecker, and they’re really big, about the size of a crow. They make an odd, piping call to signal that they own a territory, or to send a message to a distant mate. They’re not rare and in fact are fairly common in the right habitat, which usually means forests with large, standing dead trees or fallen logs. These are hosts to their favorite food, carpenter ants, and other insects. They also feed on fruit and nuts. Some can be found in woody areas at the edges of cities and may even visit suet and peanut feeders in our backyards. You can hear them here:

www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Pileated_Woodpecker/sounds.

Q: I recently read a warning not to feed hummingbirds with feeders filled with sugar water, instead hummingbirds should only be feeding from flowers. The reason given was that the sugar water in feeders can ferment quickly and cause illness. Are we doing a disservice to hummingbirds by putting out feeders?

Q: A downy woodpecker often visits my finch feeder, but I never see him at my suet feeders. Is this common, and should I be offering some other options?

A: It sounds like you have a downy woodpecker who’s developed a fondness for finch food. Downies do enjoy seeds, in addition to suet, especially black oiler sunflower seeds, and can be found at seed feeders from time to time. You could certainly continue with your current feeding regime, but if you want to lure the downy away from the finch feeder, I’d try offering black oilers or shelled peanuts in separate feeders.

Q: My wife and I enjoy watching osprey in the winter in Sarasota, Fla., where there are many nests on lampposts and purpose-built platforms. Until recently, we also enjoyed watching the hawks on lampposts in a local park near our suburban Minneapolis home. But the city replaced the posts, and the new ones apparently offer less support for nests so no new ones have appeared. We miss the osprey calls and sightings and wonder whether the city has a responsibility to make the new lamps accessible?

A: It’s good to hear that you and your wife are osprey fans and the scene in Sarasota sounds wonderful, but it’s a shame that a lamppost change has led to fewer osprey nests in your community. I don’t believe that the city is required to make the new posts accessible for osprey nests, but you might want to call your parks department to learn their thinking on this. The city almost surely needed a permit from the Minnesota DNR to make changes to the poles that had been used for nesting.

Q: I was checking my backyard tree for migrating warblers and found a sweet nighthawk snoozing on a branch. It was very exciting and I’ll be sad when it leaves.