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Where We Left Off:
We received conflicting opinions from our readers about whether our trailcam caught an actual Jersey Devil on camera.
Without Warning:
Some days, Gus or Oliver discover a body with their humans; other days bodies are reported to us. When we came across an unusual matted substance in the driveway, none of us immediately realized we were looking at remains. This was definitely a case to be listed as an unintended discovery.
After Gus gave the spot a cursory inspection, I reached for a twig and began to lift the matted particles away from each other. That’s when it became more clear that these were tiny feathers. This pile of evidence was in poor condition. A facility with a more robust lab would be able to analyze it better than we can at the Winchester-Nabu Detective Agency.
Visual inspection showed that the feathers’ average length was about an inch. They were white at the calamus end (pokey quill nib part) and grey at the tip. Since everything was mashed together, the most identifiable feathers were contour feathers. We are also at the end of autumn and beginning of winter here in New Jersey. Many of the more colorful birds have migrated. However, we have some winter birds like cardinals that will stand out from the bland grey and tan branches of the bushes. We also have sparrows that are mostly brown and white with spots of other color for accents like yellow or black. One different type is the dark-eyed junco. They are part of the sparrows but stand out from the brown sparrows you see everywhere.
Could This Victim be a Dark-Eyed Junco?
Dark-eyed juncos have white bellies with a top coloring from medium grey to a darker ashy, charcoal grey in our part of the country. They look quite different on the west coast. They happen to be here during their non-breeding months. Females and immature juncos would have more of the brown and white house sparrow coloring. I think what we mostly get here are officially called the “slate colored” variety of dark-eyed juncos even if that coloring is darker on certain fellows than others.
Could This Victim be a Tufted Titmouse?
The titmouse is another predominantly grey and white small bird. It has a little blush on it. They have glossy black, beady eyes that look like a shark’s eyes. They don’t make the most enjoyable songs, but they are among my favorite birds. Adorable as hell. They also are the only small birds that take peanuts in the shells.
We went through this Junco to Titmouse comparison before in our 300th case file. Since the evidence on the pavement was not going to be a fun project to collect, I didn’t bring any of those feathers back to the detective agency to compare against our collection. Without even counting, I know we have the most of Blue Jays and Mourning Doves because they drop feathers a lot. What’s interesting is that I don’t think I have any Titmouse feathers. I have some tiny ones labeled as Junco but that’s also a matter of trying to match them to the Feather Atlas for confirmation.
Gus put his Super Smeller to work even though he felt he had more pressing business with the chipmunks in the junkyard.
“I think one of those roaming cats took this bird down and then left it,” Gus said. “My bet is that it’s a Dark-eyed Junco and was grabbed by the black and white we call Lokai.”
“Do the chipmunks up here have any information or clues?” I asked him.
“They haven’t told me if they know anything. They mostly stare a lot,” he said.
We haven’t yet recruited the youngest chipmunk, Murdock, in the junkyard into an informant yet. I think he appreciates the peanuts more than someone else might so it may be only a matter of time. Then again, he knows not to try and befriend Gus. He’s truly adorable and knows that I’m the one with the can of snacks.
Case Findings:
- Victim: Name unknown; dark-eyed junco; DOA; no known enemies.
- Suspect #1: Lokai, the black and white domestic feline who keeps moving in on our territory.
Case: Closed (unless we get more information we think we have our perp)