Pinyon jays will disperse pinyon seed as far as 6 miles (up to 0.6 oz. per load). Clark's nutcrackers will disperse them up to 18 miles (to 1.1 oz. per load). These data are from Table 4.1 in my book "Made For Each Other", 1996. In the context of Great Basin geography, this probably allows nutcrackers to harvest in one mountain range and cache seeds in the next one, and jays to disperse to sites within the range where they have harvested (guesswork). I have no juniper data, but it now looks as though they are largely dispersed by bunnies up to a few hundred yards, and by thrushes (robins, bluebirds), waxwings, etc. maybe occasional long distances as resin suggests.

Fantastic photos of the bluebirds and waxwings together. That is luck to see them together, let alone get a good photo. We have waxwings here all summer, but so often they are high up in trees, most people don't notice them. They like black cherries, and when i canoe the river i see them flycatching alot. And congrats newyorkrita on your bird garden paying off. Glad the Wentworths were well used, so many people report birds not touching the highbush cranberries. I saw cardinals picking at them once, but i think they were only after the pits inside. I may have to think about planting a Cardinal Candy viburnum. Winterberries - ive never had those last late in the year. I had a robin that would camp out until they were all gone, in December.

frmbritt - it's best if you start a new post/thread. You'll get more responses. Feeding birds can become a challenge when certain birds dominate your feeders. I struggle with this too (I get a lot of blackbirds). To prevent doves you need feeders they can't use. I could suggest a tube feeder with perches. The fat doves can't land on the perches. They also have tube feeders and suet feeders with cages around them. This prevents bigger birds from entering and allows smaller birds access (like a bluebird). The not so fun part is buying new/more feeders. I'm going thru this now.... Just when I thought I was good on feeders, now I'm buying caged feeders, and they aren't cheap.

Hi calliope! Ours here do the SAME thing. I have been seeing groups of 6-8 Blue Jays flying together across the yard, all of them yelling loudly the whole way. I don't think that the behavior is connected to a hawk here. I noticed it last year when the parents fledged their young. They stayed in and around the yard for a long time, and they would engage in this same screaming Blue Jay posse behavior. I'm not sure why they do it though.