Bird of the Day - Blue Jay - August 31, 2024

Flying Circus Birds

From the Flying Circus Birders

The Flying Circus Birders is a gathering of people interested in enjoying and exploring the natural history of Boulder County, CO. We are open to all and meet every week year-round and are often led by Ringmaster Steve Frye. Please join us some time! Sign up for this newsletter by using the Postings Button below.

"If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere.”

- Vincent Van Gogh

Flying Circus Birders

August 31, 2024. Sunny and cool. 55 – 75 F. 0 - 3 mph.

18 participants

We are heading into the void of fall birding, where the weather is beautiful and the leaves are gorgeous, but the birds are vacant. At least they seem to be vacant much of the time. Migration has already taken away many birds and the ones left have a lot of food and no great reason to make any sounds. So, the landscape can appear pretty void of birds, but it’s still a wonderful time to be outside.

See all of the Great Images from the Walk!

Photo Gallery

This week we have 34 images in our gallery!

Please Note - The gallery images are collected from many dedicated bird photographers. Photographers are listed in the text when you click on an image.

Blue Jay Eating a Hornworm Video © Jane Baryames

Video

Blue Jay Eating a Hornworm © Steve Frye

Bird of the Day - Blue Jay

Blue jays are common, but we always love seeing them on the walk. They don’t often make Bird of the Day honors, however the jay we saw this morning was doing something notable – eating a huge hornworm caterpillar. It appeared to be working quite hard at eating the hornworm. I always thought it would be like eating a big bag of mush. Anyway, blue jays eat a lot of caterpillars, especially during nesting season to supply their young with protein. If not eaten by a blue jay, hornworms grow to be sphynx moths which are also called hummingbird moths because they move like a hummingbird, weight the same as a hummingbird, and eat from the same plants. Roger Tory Peterson has a sphynx moth illustrated in the hummingbird section of his famous bird field guide because they are so often misidentified as a hummingbird.

Learn more about the Bird of the Day by going to All About Birds from the

Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology

Hear the sounds of our Bird of the Day at the Peterson Field Guide to Bird Sounds

More Images from the Walks

Just click on the image to see a larger version!

Wild Turkey © Cynthia Kosso

Bald Eagle © Jane Baryames

Black-Headed Grosbeak © Steve Frye

Spotted Towhee © Jane Baryames

"An early morning walk is a blessing for the whole day"

-- Henry David Thoreau

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See more images of our

Bird of the Day from past walks

Flickr

Visit our website boulderbirdwalks.org

Also Seen on the Bird Walk

Gray Hairstreak © Steve Frye

Old St. Vrain Road :copyright: Steve Frye

Bird Walk History - What Happened 5 Years Ago?

Bird Blast from the Past

What's all this then

The Flying Circus Birders meet every Saturday for our adventures, leaving promptly at 7:30 am and returning about 10:30 am (times differ in winter and summer). Destinations are announced in Friday evening emails, no reservations are required. See the postings button above to sign up for the newsletter and destination emails. All ages and experience levels welcome. Please come ready to have fun, dressed for conditions and with optics, if you have them. Within reason, we go out every Saturday because that is just the kind of people we are.

Send in those Images !

Please share your images from the Saturday walk by emailing them to flyingcircusbirders@gmail.com. If possible, send images as jpegs from 300k to 5mb in size. Thank you for sharing and please include your name and date taken.

eBird - Real Time Bird Sightings for Boulder County

Today's Bird List

Old Saint Vrain Rd, Boulder, Colorado, US

Aug 31, 2024 6:20 AM - 9:45 AM

Protocol: Traveling 4.0 mile(s)

29 species

Wild Turkey 10

Black-chinned Hummingbird 1

Broad-tailed Hummingbird 1

Red-tailed Hawk 1

Downy Woodpecker 3

Northern Flicker 4

American Kestrel 1

Western Wood-Pewee 2

Eastern Phoebe 1

Plumbeous Vireo 1

Blue Jay 8, see Bird of the Day

Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay 3

American Crow 2

Black-capped Chickadee 6

Barn Swallow 6

White-breasted Nuthatch 1

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 1

House Wren 3

Gray Catbird 4

American Robin 2

House Finch 8

Lesser Goldfinch 3

American Goldfinch 1

Spotted Towhee 14

Common Grackle 1

Yellow-rumped Warbler 2

Western Tanager 1

Black-headed Grosbeak 2

Lazuli Bunting 2

Birds with bold listings are an indication of rarity, high numbers, good observation opportunity, or interesting behavior exhibited.