I recalled the days of my
youth in Brooklyn's Wallabout neighborhood when my Mom would hear the Blue Jay and beckon me to the rear window. And there I watch with admiration the noisy but beautiful Blue Jay.
Those days are long ago but I remembered it vividly.Window watching for birds became sort of a hobby itself ,hoping to see the blue jay; but that was enlightened by eventually the cardinal until one day I was rewarded with my spark bird, a breeding spring male Scarlet Tanager. That's when the seeds of my birding career began 48 springs ago.
Fast forward to today , the Blue jay of my youth made a prominent entrance up on Butterfly meadow. While working my assignment clearing paths, I just happened to look up and see a flyover Blue Jay-not one,not two nor three: try a minimum 40. They were migrating, in patchy flocks ,like late catch-ups heading north. Not many people are aware Blue Jays do migrate. As short distance migrants when acorns go through their cyclical crop dives,the beloved Blue Jay has to move on south.
So, whatever way people see Blue Jays,let it be a lesson, despite the jays common presence, we should appreciate the jays role in creating the great oak forest of northern North America, simply because they like to bury acorns they forget later where they planted it;and other birds like warblers that eat insects hosting on keystone oaks, should thank the Jays as absent-minded Johnny Appleseeds .
And what would be a forest be without the noisy Jay? They provide character and presence where they are. They shall always remain my favorite.
🐦