Date: Fri, 13 Dec 2002 09:26:48 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Tom Beal Subject: IDing individual Blue Jays MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I was watching the Blue Jays gorging themselves on peanuts this morning when I notice that the white stripe/streak/wedge that extends up from their belly into the gray of their breast seems to be distinctive on each individual. Something like the tail patterns on whales. I am thinking of using our new digital camera to capture images of the birds and see something about the local population visiting the feeder, size, group structure, etc. Does anybody think these patterns will lead to individual identifications or do you think the patterns constantly change due to movement, preening, bathing, etc.? Tom Beal Glenn Dale, MD ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================