Category Archives: The Jay Bird Chronicles

Three, the magic number

Woohoo!   All as beautifully colored as the first…unbelievable colors. There is a newly focused commitment to brooding on the nest.  Sitting, sitting, sitting.

What else do they have to do?

It’s weird to me that they stick around for awhile & then leave for hours at a time… Once the egg is laid, doesn’t it need constant incubation? Where are they at night?  We can’t see if they’re there, ‘cuz we don’t turn on the light, but I know they can see us thru the […]

One egg, two egg, brown egg, blue egg

Jayne, Jayson, one of ‘em hangs out in the nest sitting for awhile.  Later, tail in the air, stands – looking at us.  Standing, looking, looking, standing, watching us watch thru the window.  Break time. All that standing…now it makes sense.

Away Time

Strangely (to us dogs & our humans) neither Jayson, nor even Jayne, sit on the nest constantly to brood the egg.  Doesn’t incubation require a constant temperature?  Doesn’t somebirdy need to sit on it all the time?   What’s the deal with all the away time?

Finally!

A fantastically beautiful turquoise green egg with delicate brown water color “marbling” over all.  Absolutely gorgeous!  The color is so vibrant.  More beautiful, dare I say it? More beautiful than a Robin’s egg…

Waxing Poetic

Jayson, gallant fellow that he is, after enjoying a breakfast of bright red berries, he feeds some berries to Jayne, who lounges in the nest under cover of roses.  Very sweet. Doesn’t this  require a limerick?!  It does, really, it does. A beautiful Jay built a nest In a bower of roses towards west …..With […]

Voila!

The nest building goes on for a few days.  The loose yet meticulously woven grey nubby twigs are the bones of the house construction.  Finally, a new material is brought in to finish the decorating portion of the job.  The fine threads of grass are closely woven in a mesmerizingly perfect circle, lining the interior […]

Team Work

Taking turns, Jayson & Jayne each bring a twig & meticulously place it into the matrix, then push & pull it into the circular shape.  The twigs are loosely woven with bits sticking out, yet the inside is circular.  Each day as the construction progresses & the nest gets larger, they take turns, pretty rapidly, […]

Love Birds

A pair of Scrub Jays, I’ll call them Jayne & Jayson, take an interest in the bower of yellow Lady Banks roses over the Predator Preserve.  We’re just hanging out in the back yard & they swoop in & out underneath the roses…hmmm…what might they be doing?  I’m sure the male is the same Jay […]

Scene: Garden Window

Evening, twilight.  A lone Scrub Jay enters the confines of the Predator Preserve.  Perching on the slanted top of the garden window, he (it’s a he – he’s so darned colorful! & not only that, his feathers are perfectly coiffed) pecks around the glass, scrabbling for footing, & is startled by our arrival at the […]