Blue Jays

Blue Jays are frequent visitors to the tray feeder on the deck. They are also proud bullies that come swooping in and terrorize all the other birds with their raucous calls. They are pretty good mimics, too. Sometimes the Jays will sit in the trees and give off the cry of a Red-tailed Hawk sending all the smaller birds into a panic. The Jays then come in to the feeders and enjoy a quiet meal.

Yesterday morning, this fella showed up pretty much by himself. (He came back later, I'm sure, as part of a group of five Jays that sent everyone running.) He came in, scared all the little finches away and terrorized a Mourning Dove, and then hopped on the tray and started to feed.

"And stay out!"

"Yum, sunflower seeds! And they are all mine, I tell you, MINE!"

As I shot one picture after another, he looked up at the sound of the camera. (Even a digital can make a clicking sound, if you want it to---or are too lazy to read the manual and learn how to turn it off.)

"Did you hear something? I could have sworn I heard something?"

As I wasn't making a great deal of movement on the other side of the glass, I can only assume he heard the camera and turned to see where the sound was coming from.

"I was right! There's some guy in there with a camera!"

"I'm ready for my close-up, DeMille!"

I'm telling you, with a head tilt like that he could become President!

Soon after this photo was snapped, he got his comeuppance when Winnie, our resident Red-Bellied Woodpecker came to get some sunflower seeds. She's about the same size, more belligerent and far better armed than the Blue Jays. And she tolerates NO other birds on HER tray!