Who scares you more?

.....this intimidating Blue Jay?






....or the snow monster in my backyard?

You're so vain....

Baby Blue Jay

This baby Blue Jay was causing a racket in one of my pine trees!




Yes, I see you too!

Have you missed me?

Doesn't Bob look pleasantly plump? His missus is laying on the nest again which leads me to sadly conclude that the other baby didn't survive and they have laid new eggs.

I have taken down my feeders for right now since that brings the Blue Jays in. I will wait till after the Mourning Dove babies can fend for themselves before I hang them back up. Someone had mentioned on a previous blog post about Blue Jays eating the babies - they don't. They just peck them to death probably due to nest competition.

I am headed out to Tennessee for business and will be back to check your blogs on Monday. By the way - I'm meeting Betsy & Leedra for lunch on Friday! Watch out Ladies - here I come!!!

Sometimes I share

Call of a Blue Jay

"Birds are indicators of the environment. If they are in trouble, we know we'll soon be in trouble."

-Roger Tory Peterson

Ssh! The Tufted Titmouse is trying to eat!

The Tufted Titmouse's instructions for eating:

1. First you position the seed between your two claws,
2. Then you bend over and closely examine it.
3. You break it open with your beak and enjoy the little sunflower seed inside.
4. And then tell that Blue Jay to be quiet! You're trying to eat!

What's his problem?!

Go Blue!

At one point yesterday, our bird feeders were a flurry of blue between the Blue Jays and the White breasted Nuthatches. The jays can sometimes be bullies on the feeders but I was glad to see the Nuthatches were persistent. Now that I'm back home it's time to catch up with all my bloggy friends!

The 2 sides of a Blue Jay

I have found that a Blue Jay has 2 sides to his personality.....



Good Blue Jay.......














BAD BLUE JAY!!

Neighbor to the birds

Ever since we built our log home in northern Michigan, I feel a different relationship with the birds than I do at our place downstate. I love the birds in the suburbs no less, but I feel closer to them when I am up in the woods - in what I perceive to be a more natural setting.



Reminds me of a passage in Walden:

"…for I found myself suddenly neighbor to the birds; not by having imprisoned one, but having caged myself near them. "

- Henry David Thoreau

.

Blue Jay enjoying the sun

Here's my Blue Jay enjoying the sun and seeds!

Where there's a will...there's a way

Guess who was able to fit on my small little bird feeder?

Blue Jays are moving in....

Seems like my only choices in birds this past week are either Blue Jays or my gang of Mourning Doves. The Blue Jays have been visiting more frequently throughtout the day and really loving the bird bath.



What's wrong with this tree?













Escuse me, but I think the Mourning Doves have pooped in the bird bath again. Can you clean this up?

Posing Blue Jay

Listen, she wants a picture of me, not you. So please move over.

Okay, now how do I look?

Blue Jay and the haystack

My husband put out corn and a haystack at his mom's place in the woods this past weekend hoping to attract deer. No deer, but plenty of Blue Jays enjoyed his corn treat!

Bird pictures from the log cabin

Saturday morning brought me such a wide variety of visitors. These were all taken at our log cabin in northern Michigan. I just love waking up in the morning, hearing all the different birds and getting ready for them to make their appearance. Being by the lake just seems to bring me the best birds....it makes me never want to leave.












Female red-winged blackbird?

The Blue jay reminding me I need to pick up leftover construction litter around the cabin!

Blue Jay versus the Hawk

I know the pictures aren't so good but I thought the story was worth telling. Today I observed the Blue Jay eating dandelions in my backyard (do Blue Jays eat dandelions?!). A Red tailed Hawk (thank you to birdgirl for correcting my previous assumption that it was a sharp shinned) flew overhead and perched himself in my neighbor's tree. The Blue Jay immediately flew over to him and landed in the same tree shrieking very loudly. The hawk shrieked back. Meanwhile, the Robin and 2 finches that were in my yard - flew into a nearby bush and took cover. The Blue Jay was relentless and I kept wondering why the hawk didn't make a meal out of him. Too big? Too loud? After a few more minutes, the hawk took off. Then the Blue Jay flew back into my yard after a job well done. What a brave bird!
*P.S. If you look very carefully in the photo, you can see the Blue Jay to the right of the Hawk in the same tree.

Let me show you how to take a bath!

Blue Jay enjoying the bird bath

After an extremely noisy entrance into the yard which caused the sparrows, finches and mourning doves to scatter - my outgoing Blue Jay enjoyed the bird bath.