August 2016
Ever seen a blue jay molt? So crazy. Not all of them molt the same. Baby, my one favorite, lost all feathers around his neck and some on his head. He looked like a pencil-necked geek; an alien of some sort. It’s like…..where did his neck go? How does he swallow anything through that skinny tube?
But then after a few weeks, the new feathers started coming in. Yay!
October 2016
Where or where do they go? The blue jays. The usual group pop into the tree outside my balcony every day……until October…..just like last year. Then all of them just disappear. It’s not like they had to migrate south for the winter because they are already south (SoFlo). All of the articles on the internet say the same thing: No one really knows their migratory pattern. Odd. Gee, I miss them.
November 2016
Wait! What’s that I hear? I run to the balcony door and, lo and behold, they’re back! No, no. They are not related to Arnold Schwarzenegger. A whole tree full of them. It’s like they’ve been traveling in a pack (oops, sorry, a flock). You wouldn’t believe the symphony of sounds coming out of them. They seem so excited. So I quickly put out a few almonds. One bird flew to pick one up and then went back in the tree. I watched as he sat on an upper branch, look down at the bird below him, release the almond, and it dropped cleanly right into the beak of that bird below. Wow, what a loving family in caring for each other. Wish us humans had more of those traits.
———————————————————————————-
May 2017
You know how we humans always seem to want what someone else has? Well, the animal kingdom is no different.
One of my squirrel friends, Joey, had come for his treats one day. While munching on walnuts, a blue jay came and perched on the balcony railing. I had put an almond for him on the railing, which they love. So first he looks down at what Joey is eating. Then he looks at the almond…..looks back at the squirrel’s treats….looks back at the almond….goes over and picks up the almond with his beak….puts it back down on the railing…..goes back to watching Joey and makes a dive-bomb dash to snatch a walnut. Sigh.
June 2017
The rainy season for Florida has started. Non-stop now for 5 days. Hadn’t seen any animals the first few days. But yesterday and today they were out in force. I suppose their growling tummies overruled their wanting to stay dry somewhere. So one by one the blue jays would show up on my balcony railing, looking like drowned rats. Dreadful. Poor little things. But talk about resilience!
December 2017
Well, the usual winter pattern of no birds. And then after a week or so…..whammo. They all show up together. At least 6 or 7 in one big traveling group. I place the first almond on the railing. Whoosh! They all dive bomb at once, fighting off each other like it was their last meal. Once the initial frenzy is over, they calm down and line up on the rain gutter overhead. I place one almond out at a time and each bird swoops down for his treat. But……since it is winter and the temps have dropped really low – 50’s during the day – they seem to want to store up. So some birds will shovel in up to 3 at a time. I was watching this one guy. He’d pick one up and let it slide into his gullet. Pick up another and let it slide….and another. And then….amazingly…..he popped FOUR! Well, 3 down the gullet and one in his beak. I was like his cheerleader…..rooting him on….”C’mon, Baby, you can to it. One more!” And then that’s it for another week or so. Crazy.