Photos / Sounds
What
Deer (Family Cervidae)Observer
npescDescription
Cloudy and 39 degrees. There is a path along a field near where I live the path is kept mown and people walk there with their dogs. There is a large field on the left side of the path and off to the right is someones backyard. The field is made op of different grasses, some goldenrod, teasel, milkweed and other vegetation all between 2 and four feet tall, it is all dead and brown now, except for some of the grass. Perpendicular to the walking path there is a depressed path between 4-5inches wide into the field, about 15-20 feet where it is intersected by many other crisscrossing paths that are slightly less well beaten. There are areas that are 3-4 feet in diameter where the grass is totally knocked down.
I think that this is an area where 3 or more deer sleep or rest, the trail that connects it to the walking path continues beyond this sleeping area. I wonder if deer use a sleeping area more than once.
Photos / Sounds
What
California Scrub-Jay (Aphelocoma californica)Observer
npescDescription
10/30/2014 4:45 PM
It was late afternoon and the sun was hitting everything at a steep angle, it had been partly cloudy all day but now it seemed mostly sunny but cool about 60f. I have observed before that in this area all the birds seem to come out in the late afternoon so i made an effort to be available during this time. I was sitting on the edge go a small orchard the fruit growing there on small trees was yellow and i am not familiar with it. I spotted Aphelocoma californica also known western scrub-jays. They seem to be intentionally staying in proximity to each other, one would perch in the tree wile the other moved over the ground pecking at it, then the one on the ground would fly up to the tree and the one on the tree would take the others spot on the ground, this trading of places happened 10 -15 times. I assume they where eating something but when I tried to move closer they flew away. A careful inspection of the ground did not reveal anything to my eyes.
Later on my walk home I obseverd another pair of scrub-jays kind of leapfrogging up and down a tree. I wonder i scrub-jays always move in Pairs?
