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| A Blue Jay attempting to "rule the roost". |
Claudia always chooses to see the good in something, just one of her many fine traits. Suffice
it to say, she has never shared my disdain
for the Blue Jay. There was a time in the not so distant past when I regarded
Blue Jays as nothing more than plunderers and pillagers. Unlike Claudia, rather
than seeing their beauty, I chose to see them as pirates of the bird feeder,
bullies who chased smaller songbirds away.
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| A pretender to the throne, perhaps? |
Moreover, I considered the Blue Jay a noise maker of raucous
shrieks and harsh cries. While the non-stop squawking of a single Blue Jay was
bothersome enough, it was those occasions when several banded together in a
single tree producing a relentless non-stop cacophony that was particularly annoying. Then a strange thing happened. I learned to appreciate and
admire Blue Jays. First and foremost, they photographed quite nicely. However, that
was hardly the sole reason for my attitude adjustment toward the Blue Jay.
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| Equal in size, a Red-bellied Woodpecker is unfazed by the Blue Jay's presence. |
Sometime after we got involved with nature photography we
began taking the time to observe and study Blue Jays. Though I had long known
them to be aggressive and pesky rascals, I also discovered them to be curious and
intelligent and, at times, quite beneficial. In fact, they are even known to serve
as nature’s tree planters, albeit unwittingly. One can only guess how many oak
trees exist east of the Mississippi
River
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| Singing it's own song of Joy to the Lord, and all who care to listen. |
They can make a variety of sounds, including the rather
gentle and musical sounding queedle-queedle.
As a songbird it may not produce the rich sound of warblers and wrens, yet
for sheer looks the Blue Jay can hold its own against anything the avian world
has to offer.
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| A striking bird, against a similarly striking sky. |
I am no longer a detractor of the stately-looking Blue Jay.
After all, who am I to argue with their Creator? In the first chapter of
Genesis we find these words: “He created every winged bird according to its kind….And saw
that it was good.”
Until Next Time,
Jim & Claudia
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