Tyler Starr
13 November 2008 around 1630 and 2200
Location: The Mill Stream between Rogers and the library
Weather: 55 ̊ F and sun setting earlier, 40 ̊ F and dark later
General: I saw two interesting things in the same location today which I thought merited an observation, even though it wasn’t necessarily me sitting somewhere for 15 minutes. The first was when I was heading down to dinner. A Western Scrub Jay flew over my head, and landed on the very small tree next to Rogers and the Mill Stream, and I noticed that it had a peanut in its mouth. I have seen many Scrub Jays with peanuts in their mouths recently due to the experiment that Prof. Craig was discussing with us in class. However, this Scrub Jay then flew to the ground beneath the tree, and I could visibly see as it buried the peanut beneath a bush. This became even more interesting when I was reading the Collegian last night, and it discussed how Scrub Jays bury food to save for the future, a sign of higher intellectual capacity. The Scrub Jay was very bold as well; I walked along the path, maybe 6 feet away from it, and it did not even fly away, and I was able to get a very good look at its bright blue plumage, gray wings, and white markings. Later that night, as I was walking that very same path, I saw a large animal in the stream. My thoughts excitedly jumped to nutria, but I quickly realized it was a raccoon. It was walking around the stream, and it would stop in place and knead at the bottom for several seconds, and then walk around and find a new place to knead. I would guess that it was looking for food, although I have no idea what. Perhaps crayfish? Once again, I was able to get close to it without scaring it off. It seems that when animals are dealing with food, they are much bolder.
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