October's Robins and Jays

     While driving through Lancaster County, Pennsylvania farmland and woodlots the afternoon of October 22, I saw some red foliage on staghorn sumac trees and red maple trees, orange and yellow leaves on poison ivy vines, several turkey vultures and a few black vultures.  And on an extensive lawn, dotted with several white oak and pin oak trees, I saw about 100 American robins, 30 plus blue jays and a few northern flickers.  I stopped to enjoy the beauties and activities of those birds among the colored leaves of the oaks, all of which was enhanced by the late afternoon sunlight. 
     The handsome robins were divided between running across the lawn in search of earthworms and other kinds of invertebrates, and perching in the oaks.  And small groups of, and individual, robins flew from tree to tree, or from the ground to the trees, or the opposite. 
     I had not seen many robins since mid-July when they finished raising their second brood of young.  After nesting, this species gathers into groups of scores and roams here and there across the countryside in search of invertebrates and berries to eat.  During that time they are not conspicuous as they are in spring and early summer when they are raising offspring.  They usually travel around unnoticed unless someone is really looking for them.
     Although sometime in autumn, many robins migrate south to find reliable food sources through the northern winter, many other individuals stay in the north.  There they feed on a variety of berries and shelter on winter nights in coniferous trees with their densely-needled limbs that block wind and shelter the birds from predators.  The robins I was seeing on the twenty-second might stay there all winter, if the berry supplies hold out.  
     Using their stout, black beaks, the beautiful blue jays I experienced on the twenty-second gathered acorns, one at a time, from the white oaks and the pin oaks, and picked up other acorns from the ground under those trees.  Then each jay flew away with that nut in its beak to stash it in a tree cavity or poke it into the ground and bury it, as squirrels do.  Those stored nuts will be extracted and ingested through winter.  But some of the nuts are forgotten and might sprout into seedling trees the next spring, thus ensuring an acorn food supply into the future.          
     The conspicuous blue feathering of blue jays is exceptionally attractive when those birds are flying in and out of the red, yellow and brown-blanketed oaks to get acorns.  Some days in October they are in and out of those trees all day.  And thirty-some jays constantly flying in and out of multi-colored oak foliage, a few at a time, on a sunny, pleasant afternoon is an exciting, wonderful sight!
     Though few in number, the flickers were attractive and interesting among the robins on the lawn.  Those brown woodpeckers with black markings were pecking into ant hills in the soil to extract ants on their long, sticky tongues.            
     Flickers are brown, instead of black and white like their relatives, because they spend much time on the ground getting food, particularly ants.  The brown camouflages them while they are on the ground.  But flickers still chip out nurseries in dead trees to raise young.
     The robins, jays and flickers put on an intriguing, lovely show that sunny, mild October afternoon.  Each species was attracted to a different food source than the others, eliminating competition for food among them.  That was why they were so peaceful together on that one lawn.  But when the various foods run out, each kind of birds will move to another location.