Bird watching: a tale of three jays

Self-tutoring about birds: the tutor discusses jays in Canada.

When I was around four, we moved to a house my father had built on the edge of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. The forest began behind us, our lot barely cleared. I don’t think, in the back yard, we ever developed a lawn. The back yard was big, to me anyway: I seldom reached its edge.

The first birds I recall are blue jays, because they were always there, winter or summer. We saw them daily, and heard them — they dominated that yard to the extent that you might say it was theirs, rather than ours. I think we put out bird seed for them. Their vivid blue colouring never got old; perhaps to a kid especially, they were wonderful to see all the time.

We moved from there to PEI, where blue jays also lived. However, I saw them less in PEI. After that, in the Annapolis Valley, they were also around, but not near so apparent as at the edge of Dartmouth in 1975.

In 1983 we moved to Newfoundland, where a different jay appeared: the gray jay, aka Canada jay.

Interestingly, blue jays, at least in theory, lived around us in Newfoundland, but I can’t recall seeing any. The gray jay I didn’t see either – until I was in the woods. You seldom had to go far from pavement before one would present. To my memory, the gray jay was always quiet. It would approach closer than a blue jay would. Moreover, the gray jay’s colouring is much less catchy than the blue’s. You’d notice it because of its size and its closeness.

Here, on the east coast of Vancouver Island, we haven’t either of those jays. We have the extroverted (and eponymous) Steller’s jay, which I’ve mentioned in a couple of posts (here and here). Although they live here year-round, they can move around a lot. I see them in fall and spring, typically, but haven’t encountered one for months. I’m sure they’ll be back:)

Source:

Hoar, De Smet et al. Birds of Canada. Edmonton: Lone Pine Publishing, 2010.

allaboutbirds.org

allaboutbirds.org

Jack of Oracle Tutoring by Jack and Diane, Campbell River, BC.

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