STELLAR JAYS and the CATS FROM THE HILL.....

"The reason birds can fly and we can't is simply because they have perfect faith, for to have faith is to have wings...."
                                                      ― J.M. Barrie, The Little White Bird

 I have been watching for  them. Spencer has noticed them.

 Then it rained. And it poured. And after that came the familiar shriek.

 That scolding caw of the Stellar Jays. They sit on the roof and yell at me for peanuts....

 have not seen them for a couple of years. But now they're back. 

 They love the peanuts. But they eat anything. any seeds, berries, fruits, beetles, wasps, and wild bees, table scraps, small rodents if they have to, or even lizards.Anything .

Cordelia lazes on the fence in the late summer sun and watches them land.

 Usually these jays stay for the better part of a winter. Sometimes they migrate.

 There were a few yeas when the same jays stayed on. I could recognize the patriarch by his comb.

 But I haven't seen him in a while. These ones are young, I think. Young and sassy.

 I like to watch them squabble over the peanuts.

 They are organized. They take turns. Dunking peanuts into the birdbath to soften the hard shells.

 Simon likes to scamper by the Jays. He's young as well.  They shriek at him in delight.

 And then  the pounding as they   smash the shells apart. 

 Fiercely brave. Noisy and vocal. 

 I LOVE that about them. They are so smart. 

 You get to recognize each of them. And they recognize you.....

 The Stellar Jays from this part of the Island  are darker with variations in the blue.

 If this colour was a fabric, I would make a quilt of it.  Bold and bright and bluer than a winter sky....

Patience

 "In order to see birds it is necessary to become a part of the silence....."  ― Robert Lynd

Photographs 2019   Simon, Spencer, Patience and his housemate, Cordelia all have happy homes on the  hill behind us. They  visit. Almost daily.