Steller’s Jays

I found one of the Steller’s Jays last night, dead on the patio near our back door.

I had seen it twice during the afternoon, once on the ground under a lawn chair, just crouched there, slowly opening and closing its beak. When I came near it flew up into the nearest tree. Later I saw Andy, peering into the big bush under the tree like there was something under there. The Jay was on the low wooden edging on the opposite side of the tree, again just sitting there, looking like it was panting. I stepped out the back door and it flew up into the middle of the bush. Andy hadn’t seen it yet but he obviously thought something was there. I thought he might try to catch the bird if it left the bush again so I went over to command him to “Leave It!” Our dogs are trained not to touch anything that we give this command about – one of the few commands we actually manage to successfully teach to all of our dogs. When I was very close to the bush, just a couple of feet away from the bird, I could hear it peeping very softly. I thought it was the chick that our Steller’s Jay pair had this spring.

I found it after supper, dead. A crow was hanging about nearby, and the other two Steller’s Jays were up in one of our neighbour’s trees screeching at another crow.

I put the body in a bag in the garbage. It was still warm. Birds seem so much smaller when they’re dead than when they’re alive.

And then I was sad for awhile.

This morning, the other two Jays came to the bird feeder and I saw immediately that it was the chick and one of the adults. I can’t tell them apart unless I’m looking at them at the same time. So it must have been the other adult that died. I wonder why. Was it sick? Was it old? I remember that I thought its feathers looked a bit ratty. When do Steller’s Jays moult? Did it get poisoned? Lots of people use pesticides on their lawns and gardens at this time of year.

I watched the remaining adult have a bath in my birdbath. It would crouch down in the water and quickly flutter its wings and duck its head into the water. Then it perched on the edge with its feathers standing out looking like a very fuzzy round ball with head, tail and feet sticking out of the grey-black mass of feathers. It repeated the process several times – splashing, perching and puffing up.

Life goes on.

These are pictures of my birdbath with the solar-powered water fountain that I installed a few weeks ago while my brother was here. Birds seem to like the fountain. The solar panel is embedded in the fake rock that you can see below the birdbath in this second photo.