Wow, a Western Scrub Jay..sure miss seeing them

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.

Pretty birds. Have never seen one.

i live just outside of Durango Colorado and i have gambel oak brush outside the door. The acorn woodpeckers like the small acorns and pinyon nuts but also carry off corn and sunflower seeds. The Lewis Woodpeckers don't come often but i got a photo of a male this week. The flickers come through in the fall and spring back and forth to the mountains, and the downeys come in the snow storms of winter. I had a pair of scrub jays nest in the oak brush this year and they had 2 young ones whoi are regular visiters. Since we got a few snow showers i have dozens of Juncos and finches and sparrows daily.