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Northern Right Whale Monitoring Program Julie Albert to Discuss Right Whales at April General Meeting Report From Florida Ornithological Society Meeting Birding British Columbia’s and Point Robert’s Boundary Bay for Arctic Visitors Colors of Nature, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge |
Report From Florida Ornithological Society MeetingBy Edward SlaneyJon Thaxton was the banquet speaker at the recent Spring meeting of the Florida Ornithological Society in Sarasota. His subject was scrub jays and the differences between those in Oscar Scherer State Park (rural jays) and those inhabiting the nearby urban neighborhoods, (urban jays). Most of the jays in the park and those nesting around homes are banded. An interesting aspect was his description of the scrub jays preference for nesting where there is scrub 7 or 8 ft high with much higher vegetation in the background and a clear area toward the front of the nest. Picture if you will, a house with a 7 or 8 ft shrub in front of it (the nest tree), a lawn ,driveway etc. The house represents the tall vegetation used for the sentinels. A perfect mimic of rural habitat. Oddly enough, the urban jays, because of their food supply from feeders, lay six or seven eggs per nest as opposed to three or four in the rural nests. Through banding they were able to follow the dispersal of females to find mates and start their cycle. Jays that went from urban to urban and rural to rural areas were about the same. There were some that went from urban to rural but there has never been one dispersal from rural to urban. On a final note, Mr. Thaxton is a realtor and a Sarasota County Commissioner. He is trying to implement an HCP (Habitat Conservation Plan) similar to what we tried here in Brevard but failed to do. I wish him all the best in his efforts. He is sincere an genuinely interested in protecting jays and their habitat. |