Yard Visitors Returned:

[Bruce P Bruner]

An even dozen today. They stayed quite awhile. One flew up into the large Ponderosa Pine, perhaps a potential roosting location.

[Bruce P Bruner]

I may be feeding them through the winter.

[charlie cleveland]

wow...hope they stay with you this winter all game birds need our help from time to time....charlie

[ArtS]

We have a small group of sizeable jakes that have been doing a similar thing for a couple of months in our back yard by our pool overlooking the farm. Makes for a unique view. Ours have been roosting in the wildflower garden at the rear of our yard. They each have their favorite tree. The largest has a habit I have not seen. He roosts in a small walnut that is leaning and has several horizontal limbs. The others fly straight up to their roost as normal. This one, while the obvious leader, seems not to be able to fly very well. Every night, he walks/climbs up to the first limb and then proceeds up the tree climbing like a kid. He uses his beak, wings and anything else he can to hoist himself up into the middle of the tree.

If they start roosting there, keep an eye under the tree. They lose a surprising number of feathers. We have picked up enough wing and tail feathers in the last couple of months to let the grandkids make several craft projects like fans, tassles etc.