barn swallows & bluejays

[Birdlander]

Hello. I am new to purple Martin. I live on Long Island in NY. I am a new bird enthusiast and not a very knowledgable one at that. Last year we had a beautiful pair of barn swallows nest on our covered porch. They successfully raised a clutch? of eggs and left a short time later. They returned this year and built a new nest on a swallows shelf that my husband put up. I was really happy to have them back. I also put up two feeders for a goldfinch that had been hanging around. Soon I had a half dozen or more goldfinch constantly visiting the feeders. One was an upside down feeder and the other a regular niger seed feeder. Delighted with the goldfinches I decided to get another feeder for black sunflower seeds to attract cardinals. The cardinals soon arrived too, along with a red-headed woodpecker and a red winged blackbird, and a lot of sparrows, which I did not want. Excited about all the bird activity in my yard I thought it would be nice to also have some blue jays. Have you ever heard the saying "Be careful what you wish for?", well, I did remember hearing that bluejays steal eggs so I went on Wikipedia and on to a couple of blogs and read about bluejays. According to Wikipedia it was estimated that only about 1% of bluejays actually eat other birds eggs and young, and the blogs I read said bluejays get a bad rapt and don't bother other birds. With this little bit of information I decided to take my chances. What a terrible mistake!!!! I put up a bluejay feeder filled with peanuts and soon there was a lot of bluejay activity. A few days later I opened the draperies in the morning to see how the swallows were doing and much to my horror a bluejay was just swooping in. It landed right on the swallows nest as they flew around frantically just off the porch. The female had been sitting in the finished nest for about a week so I was sure there were eggs in the nest. I got out a ladder and looked into the nest and guess what, no more eggs. The blue jay continued to return to their nest numerous times throughout that day and the next and on the morning of the third day there was no sign at all of the swallows. I guess they were smart enough to move on to some safer place where they could start over. And as for the goldfinches, well, they have all vanished too. I think they are also afraid of the jays. I stopped feeding the jays peanuts but they seem to be picking up the sunflower seeds that fall to the ground. They take them into the tree and peck at them so I assume they are able to eat them, even though I read somewhere that bluejays can't open the black sunflower seeds. Does anyone know if the jays will ever leave? Will they keep coming back to look for swallows nests and other small birds to prey on? The jays are pretty but I am no longer a fan, and so sad that I ruined my little swallow/goldfinch sanctuary!!

[elyas]

Never had any problem with bluejays here. We also feed them whole raw peanuts in the morning. Fun watching them come in and grab the peanuts. We try to keep jays because they are a very good hawk alarm. Some say too many feeding birds draws a hawk in. It may do that but with so many birds here it is difficult for the hawk to make a run without being detected.

[starling shooter]

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Barn Swallows nested in floor joists of Hay Lofts. These are practically predator proof. Cats, black snakes, nothing could get to them. It was dark so blue jays, crows, woodpeckers woud not go after them. Black snakes cannot climb horizontally. They were nesting as if suspended in mid air.

Saw a USA today article that Iowa is losin g1000 barns per year. I grew up in hayfields stacking square bales. No one farms that way now, it is all big round bales. Big barns with lofts have no use. They are falling down everywhere. Most from my youth are gone.

Barn Swallow numbers will suffer.

Sad part is, many old barns with lofts do not have an open door.