Replies

Last week, while mowing the lawn in the backyard, a couple of scrubjays were making bombing runs on me and the dogs. I suspected they had a nest up in one of our redwood trees cuz they made that a point of rendezvous.

Well, this morning I heard a bunch of squawking and saw these two making bombing runs on something over the fence in the alley.

Investigating, I saw a cat which I chased off.

Then Bailey started chasing something on the ground, and the squawking began again in earnest. Bailey was put inside, and I found what he was chasing - a baby scrubjay running along the fence.

Definitely a Kodak moment so I got the camera and returned to the scene of the crime to discover not one but two little critters...

Overhead in the oak tree, mom or dad kept a watchful eye...

Oh, Dave - those are precious! Thank goodness the mom or dad made enough noise for you to investigate and find the babies before the cat - or Bailey! - harmed them! I love a happy ending. :)

We had scrub jays nesting in our lemon tree and I know well how protective the parents are. I was so happy when the babies finally got to the point where we weren’t being dive bombed by mom and dad every time we went in the back yard.

The funny thing is, when the babies leave the nest, they actually can’t fly well enough to escape predators. It was still a couple weeks before they could fly up to the fence and a couple more weeks before they could fly from tree to tree. In the meantime, the parents kept feeding and caring for them. I am surprised the babies survived the neighborhood cats, but they spent a lot of time hanging out under the oleanders, and one of the babies, two years later, still comes to the yard for peanuts. He is so tame that he will take them out of my hand.

It was such fun watching the babies grow up, but I would prefer they built their nest in someone else's yard. Then I don’t end up feeling responsible for them.

Thanks for the photos of yours. Hope they all grow up to be beautiful healthy adult jays. :-)