July 24, 2006

MURDERER!

I had no idea birds moved so fast when eating — this guy was impossible to photograph! He’s the Steller’s Jay I call ‘Baby II’ — after ‘Baby I’ who arrived on my porch with downy grey fuzz still sticking out of his shiny blue feathers. He looked like an untidy little mess and all the big nasty Jays higher on the pecking totem would constantly bomb him . I confess — I felt for him. I gave him a few seeds. He learned fast. Soon he was sitting in the pines outside, earnestly looking into the house windows. And every time he saw me pass by, he’d start flapping his wings like he never left the nest, yelling: “Feed me! Feeeeed me!”

Eventually, he took to pecking on my bedroom window to wake me up in the mornings, and then he’d join me in my study, sitting on the windowsill, and sometimes coming right in to hop around on my desk (especially if there was a bagel in sight). Determined thing.

Well, blow me down if Baby didn’t introduce a Baby of her own a following season. And now that baby has brought another — all with that irksome “feedme” behaviour down pat. It was okay. I was even somewhat flattered by the attention, because it was only me who ever got the ‘feedme’ treatment – they recongized me. I felt special :) …. until this guy demonstrated something I’ve never seen in a Jay — he attacked a little black-headed junko in mid-flight, tore into him with his talons, lost him in a cloud of feathers, chased him down, pinned him down … and pecked him to death.

It happened twice this week.

Has anyone ever seen a Steller’s Jay do that? I just can’t feel the same affection for ‘Baby’ these days. I know those Junko’s could do with a little more brain matter, but this — this they do not deserve

PS … do not tell the conservation office I ‘once’ fed Baby

PSS … for those not going - there’s a place to get the dirt … and, well, it seems Atlanta is not that hot after all … or not as hot as the Pacific Northwest …

Posted by Loreth @ 9:10 pm | THE WHISTLER LIFE

4 Responses to “MURDERER!”

On July 25th, 2006 at 7:31 am
meretta Says:

Nasty! Must say I’ve never seen any Jay do that. Yikes. Poor little Juncos are lower on the food chain than they figured.

And cool link to the National blogs. Thanks for sharing!!
On July 25th, 2006 at 10:13 am
Kristen Says:

Yikes! I’ve never seen anything like that… Poor bird. It’s pretty and all, but vicious.

We were in Atlanta for the 4th, and it poured. That’s the one thing we didn’t prepare for. I mean, rain? In the middle of summer? On the FOURTH? No way! It rained cats and dogs.
We left 2 days after that, and family over there laughed and said that we took the heat/humidity with us to Texas. The last week over here was always in the 90/100’s, even in the shade at like, 9PM. *shakes head*
On July 25th, 2006 at 8:23 pm
Loreth Says:

Yep, Kristen — vicious baby!!!

Much cooler in this neck of the woods today, which reminds me that I don’t much like it too cold either. We humans have a rather narrow comfort zone, methinks.
On July 26th, 2006 at 4:03 pm
Toni Anderson Says:

We have 5 blue jays next door. One pinned a mouse at the end of the garden last week and tried to peck it to death.

I love jays but they are bold birds.

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