Friday, August 13, 2010

Close To A Blue Jay

I mentioned a few weeks ago about seeing some Blue Jays that seemed abnormally huge. I'm sure you don't remember because it was just a brief mention and I didn't even get any pictures. They seemed to be waiting there for me just so they could fly off at just the right time for me to miss getting the pictures.

Well what those mean old blue jays didn't know was that my war with this particular type of birds was over last spring when I got the long awaited pictures that I wanted. Still, the size of this new group was intriguing. I wondered why they were so much bigger than I expected them to be. Or if maybe the answer was much simpler than I imagined.

Even though I have to say right now that I did not do one bit of checking, I'm sure the real answer is that I just never have been close enough to a blue jay to realize that they were so big. I mean, they aren't the size of a hawk or other bigger bird. They're just bigger than most of the smaller birds, like American Robins. Not much bigger though. Actually some robins get this big.

Anyway, I finally did get the chance to get a closer look at a few blue jays. These birds were in an area of Kensington Metropark where there are a lot of people. So the blue jays and other creatures didn't seem to be very afraid. The place is a good location to spot wild animals, but the animals aren't exactly as wild as most.

At least the blue jays didn't fly down and try to land on my shoulder or my head or something like that. That would have freaked me out a little. This was right near where the squirrel from yesterday's post was. Those squirrels and the chipmunks were a little more aggressive than the blue jays there. That very much did freak me out at first.

This blue jay seemed to be content to just stay up in the tree and watch everything that went on down below. When it finally decided to fly away I saw that there were about a half dozen of them altogether. Maybe they were hoping that someone would drop a little food down for them too. That someone wouldn't be me. I don't feed the animals while I'm out on the trail. At home is one thing. At a nature park is another.

I tried to get a good picture with his crest up for you to see, but this is the best I could do. It's still good, but I wanted a little more. That will come in time. I'm just glad I was able to get so close. He was still up quite high in the tree though. My camera does well for me in that regard.

Now, many of you might have noticed this week that I've been able to visit and comment at your blogs a little more. That is partially because of the fact that I stopped posting on the weekends to give myself a rest from blogging. It has helped quite a bit because I'm feeling a little less pressed for time now. I've taken that attitude of getting a bit of rest with everything else too so I have a much better feeling about a lot of things now.

And lastly, I just had a meeting with a fox squirrel named Flynn. You might remember him last when I caught him pointing a camera at me while I was in the forest taking my own pictures. He swears he has no pictures of me, but he has asked if he could do a guest post here Monday. I don't really know what he has in mind, but I figured it would be a great thing to help a squirrel actually talk to humans. So with no questions asked I'm going to turn this blog over to Flynn for Monday.


Nature Center Magazine - Mushrooms. They aren't just for breakfast anymore, or probably ever. But for Free Wallpaper they're just fine.

18 comments:

  1. Great pictures of the blue jay. Can't wait to hear what Flynn has to say on Monday, looking forward to reading his guest post.

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  2. I remember Long Jone Silver had his parrot perching on his shoulder. It must be fun if the Blue Jays does the same to you.

    Anyhow, feel glad you are now released from pressure, happy blogging.

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  3. Looking forward to hearing from Flynn, perhaps he could interview Rocky the flying squirrel or other celebrities like Bullwinkle.

    Nice Jay photos, by the way.

    Bill:www.wildramblings.com

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  4. Beautiful photos of the blue jay, Ratty! I saw blue jay around here too, but they're too fast for pictures. I'm glad you're under less pressure, and enjoying your time off..

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  5. OH boy! Who knows what Flynn will say? Good shots. Blue Jays are elusive when not at feeders.

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  6. Amazing capture, Ratty! I've seen several around here, but they are so elusive! :)

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  7. they frequent in our area where i used to live because we sey up wild birds seed feeders and they are always happy to stop by and eat the free meals. too bad i never took any photos. nice capture of the blue jays. jazevox

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  8. Used to eat with a jay in CA where I took my lunch each day. Any morsel dropped was his,he was fast to grab it.The jays have keen eyesight so run when they see you point at them.

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  9. We are very lucky in that we have bluejays visiting our bird feeder year round. They are noisy and a bit aggressive with other birds, and our neighbors don't like them because of this, but I love seeing them...especially in the winter when all is white and we get blessed by their bright blue feathers on our rail all winter.

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  10. They are big but I believe there have been sightings of blue jays in Toronto that some say are 6 feet tall!!!

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  11. Blue Jays have been known to eat smaller birds...but I still enjoy having them around. They will alert me if a snake is in my yard/garden and join Crows in running off a Hawk. They can be hogs at a feeder.
    I am looking forward to what Flynn has to say.:)

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  12. I'm always up for a Bird TV post! We get blue jays out here, but I think they are a different kind of blue jay than the ones you have. They are big birds!

    This cat is looking forward to what a squirrel would have to blog about.

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  13. I haven't seen blue jays here and i dunno if we have such in our area. Like your captures.

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  14. Great shots of the Jays Ratty, they are very interesting birds with amazing personalities. For some reason we don't have them in this area, just lots of Magpies.

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  15. the first photo has my 5 stars rating

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  16. Great shots of the blue jay. I came across two of them at the gardens recently and they were just beautiful.

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  17. What a beautiful blue jay. You got excellent shots of him, Ratty. Too bad all the beauty goes to the males! It just doesn't seem fair!

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  18. It's got a cool and hip name, wonder if it could rap too. =D

    PS: good to hear you're less tensed. Blogging can strain you sometimes. It's always good to take a break and take things easy.

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