Fly Away, Jay

Blue Jays and us generally have a rocky relationship. Last year, they lived in the tree immediately beside our bedroom window and would wake us up early every morning. Since then, a family of racoons moved into that tree, so they had to move to the other side of the yard.

We've enjoyed them this year. They're beautiful, and we love watching them go about their birdy life in our yard.

Yesterday after work, Colin and I were in the backyard watering the garden. I noticed a blue jay sitting on the grass, not moving. So we went to check it out to see if it was alive. When we got close enough, we realized it was a baby jay! It was so cute, all fluffy with baby feathers!

He was alive, but it was apparent he hadn't learned how to fly yet, as he flapped his cute wings trying with all his might. He must have fallen from his nest.

We have a lot of cats in our neighbourhood (doesn't everyone) and we often see racoons on the prowl at night, so we were very worried for the well-being our our new little friend.

We've heard that if you touch a baby animal, the parents will reject it, so without touching it, we sort of chased it a few feet into an area of our yard that is covered by branches on the ground. At least there it had SOME protection.

Since it was hot, we ate dinner on the deck. We could still see the little guy sitting right where we left him. As we ate, we heard it's parents on the opposite side of our yard, squaking in their nest. They sounded upset that we were even outside. Colin tried to get a closer look, but just about got divebombed, so moved away again.

As we watched, the parents took turns taking food to their lost baby on the other side of the yard, and then quickly moved away from it, as if to avoid drawing attention to it's whereabouts. They would watch over it from different locations: the trees, the fence, the grass...always being careful to not give away his location.

We had to go out for the evening. I must admit I thought about it while we were gone. When we got home, we were relieved to see that it was still ok! Colin surrounded it even more with twigs and branches in hopes that it would stay safe for the night.

Colin's paternal instinct is kicking in. A year ago he would have said "Who cares, let nature be". But now, he feels bad that mommy and daddy Jay might lose an offspring.

This morning, as I was eating my breakfast with the back door open, I noticed a white cat in the backyard with a bird in its mouth. I freaked out. I ran outside and grabbed rocks and threw them at the cat so he would drop his fresh catch. I went to go see what bird it was and luckily, it was not our little Jay.

I searched the area where the Jay was the night before, but I couldn't see it. I didn't know exactly where to look though, as Colin was the one who tucked it in for the night. So I updated my sleepy husband on my findings, and then had to go to work without knowing exactly what happened.

Colin emailed me when he got to work saying, "I looked for the Jay this morning and couldn't find him. Maybe he found his wings".

I hope so.