[birdky] Blue Jay song . . . 2004

For the third spring in a row now I've heard a Blue Jay singing! This bird
was on my family's farm in eastern Jefferson County yesterday morning, a
little earlier than the two previous times I've heard song in April. For the
third time now, I've been doing something else and all of the sudden
wondered "what the heck is THAT singing???" Like the previous two songs,
this one had distinct elements of American Golfinch and Blue-gray
Gnatcatcher within it, but there were mostly blackbird elements including
Red-winged Blackbird and Common Grackle call notes, and a lot of jumbled
squeaks and whistles that were distinctly "starling-like" in quality. The
bird also imitated the main contact call -- keew -- of the Northern Flicker
and gave some more typical interactive jay notes. Perhaps the most
interesting elements of the repertoire were some what I'd call -- for lack
of a better term -- "noises" that sounded "tropical" or "chimpanzee-like"
notes. I can't describe them, but they certainly were uniquely odd little
sounds, especially coming from a Blue Jay.

The indian grass fields on our farm continue to be inhabited by numerous
sparrows that have been joined by some migrants. Chippys and Songs remain
the most common, but there are certainly more Savannahs now, as well as a
few Vespers. I also believe I had a LeConte's fly up from in front of some
mowing equipment yesterday but can't be sure. Regarding migrant sparrows, I
was quite surprised to hear of a report of multiple Nelson's Sharp-tailed
Sparrows in Tennessee last weekend (an anomalous report that is about six
weeks prior to when migrants might be suspected in our region) and I had to
wonder if migrant Henslow's were considered. They are darker than Le Conte's
and should be arriving in LeConte's habitats now and could easily catch an
observer off guard if they were being expected.

bpb, Louisville
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