Mimi Bounds of Dunwoody near Perimeter Mall wrote last week to say that she's worried about an apparent scarcity of blue jays. "I'm concerned that I rarely see what was once the common blue jay," she says. "I hardly ever see jays. They are not as profuse ... as they once were."

Other folks have reported similar observations in recent years.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (ENLARGE)

Blue jays may be scarcer because there are fewer acorns to eat and because the birds are very susceptible to West Nile virus.

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Blue jay expert Bill Hilton Jr., director of the Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History in York, S.C., says the observations are accurate. "There indeed has been a decline in blue jay numbers," says Hilton, who spent several years studying the species.

He cites a couple of reasons for the bird's decline. One is the destruction of oak woods due to development. Fewer oaks mean fewer acorns, which are major food source for jays, he explains. The other reason is West Nile virus, which has hit blue jays and related species especially hard, he says.

Scientific surveys back up the anecdotal reports. Data from the annual North American Breeding Bird Survey, perhaps the nation's most authoritative bird count, show a slight but significant decline in blue jay numbers across the United States, with most of the decline in the East. Reports have put the decline in some areas at about 1.5 percent per year in recent years.

Last year, a study by the New York-based Consortium for Conservation Medicine at the Wildlife Trust documented considerable population declines among blue jays and several other species due to West Nile, a mosquito-borne virus that first appeared on this continent in New York in the summer of 1999.

Despite the gloomy reports, no one is saying that the blue jay will become extinct. It's still among the 10 most common birds tallied each February in the Great Backyard Bird Count. Nevertheless, if its numbers continue to go down, one of our most colorful, noticeable yard birds may become uncommon in many neighborhoods where it once flourished.

It should be noted, however, that even where blue jays are still quite common, it's normal for them to be less apparent in the spring. That's because as spring progresses, blue jays turn to rearing their young and become relatively inconspicuous. Their movements become silent and even stealthy as they go about their daily affairs. So an apparent lack of jays over the next few months may be just part of their normal behavior.

Actually, fewer blue jays might not seem so bad to some folks. Many people dislike the bird because it sometimes eats the eggs and nestlings of other birds. However, an extensive study of blue jay feeding habits found that only 1 percent of jays had evidence of eggs or birds in their stomachs.

Personally, I rank the blue jay as one of our most beautiful native creatures. It never fails to thrill me when I see its bright blue tints flash by my window.

Shorebirds

On the Georgia coast, some good bird news: Early results from a January survey of shorebirds indicate increases in the numbers of several species, including short-billed dowitchers, dunlins, western sandpipers and semi-palmated plovers. The midwinter water bird survey, led by the state Department of Natural Resources, is an annual census done since 1996 to compile information on the birds' populations and roosting areas.

This year's participants counted an estimated 103,000 birds representing 40 species, including rare ones such as red knots and piping plovers. The total reflects the Georgia coast's importance as a haven for wintering and migrating water birds.

Field notes

They're back — or at least some are back. We're talking, of course, about our neotropical migrants, birds that spend the winter in Latin America and nest in Georgia during spring and summer. The Georgia birders' chat line was full of reports last week about returning spring migrants. Doris Cohrs of coastal McIntosh County said her first male ruby-throated hummingbird of the season showed up at her feeder. "Its [arrival] is about a week later than the early date of previous years," she noted.

Nathan Klaus in Monroe County says he heard a "whippoorwill singing ... in the moonlight out the back door." Charlie Muise in neigboring Lamar County also heard his first whippoorwill of the year the other night. "I was listening to frogs and hoping for an owl," he said. "This was a very nice replacement."

Sheila Willis in Waycross said she had her first-of-the-season indigo bunting in her yard. Neal Cronic in Harris County spied two first-of-the-season warbler species, a yellow-throated and a black-and-white, near the Chattahoochee River.

In the sky

The moon will be last quarter on the night of March 29, rising about midnight and setting around midday, says Fernbank Science Center astronomer David Dundee. Mercury is low in the east just before sunrise. Venus rises out of the east about an hour before sunrise. Mars is high in the south at about sunset. Jupiter, shining brightly in the predawn sky, rises out of the east about 2 1/2 hours before sunrise. Saturn is high in the east at sunset.