Well friends, today marks two weeks since I last worked my job and in some ways that time frame feels like an eternity and everyday since has been a ball of confusion.
Sound familiar?
Since the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic appeared in the US it feels as if we are spinning through time and space with not much of anything to hold onto - not knowing where we are going or when we will get there. There are so many people hurting right now, across the USA and across the world.
So I find myself coming here to the blog so that I can share something about life that has some familiarity.
For instance, as I was looking out onto my backyard garden yesterday morning, I saw a European Starling flying along and then land in our maple tree. It had a rather large piece of plant material in its beak. I watched it take flight again and head towards the neighbors attic crawl space. It was not successful in its attempt to get itself into the space and flew right back into the tree and landed on the exact same branch it had started from. I watched it make another attempt, which was successful. So of course what I witnessed was the beginnings of nest building season.
And as I was thinking about that Starling again today, I remembered our experience with a baby Blue Jay last spring...
Jim had gone into town on an errand and when he returned he noticed a small little puffy ball of grey-blue at the top of the driveway. It was nestled in a corner next to the garage door. As he got closer and inspected it, he realized that it was a baby Blue Jay. It looked right back at him and chirped.
Jim came into the house to let me know he found a baby bird and we grabbed a plastic container and scooped the baby up and brought it into the backyard. We quickly created a makeshift shelter from a box and then wondered what the heck we should do.
I called the local Wild Birds Unlimited shop and they gave me the phone number for the helpline at the Chintimini Wildlife Center. Friends, it turns out that if you find a baby bird you should leave it be. The woman I spoke with at Chintimini explained that even though it may not have been obvious, the baby Blue Jay's parents are there and they are watching over it and that there is no need to be alarmed. She encourage me to put the baby back where we found it.
So I scooped the baby Blue Jay back into the plastic container and proceeded to head back to where we initially found the bird. Suddenly there was an uproarious cacophony of Blue Jay squawks coming from above. As you might have guessed, it was the parents and they were quite upset at us! My Birds of the Willamette Valley Region book describes their calls as a harsh, high-pitched, rising sheeeenk. They were definitely upset.
And the biggest surprise of all is that as I was walking and looking up at the displeased parents, I suddenly realized that straight ahead of me, near an arborvitae branch that was growing very low to the ground, was another baby Blue Jay!
So I placed the baby we had picked up with the second baby and left the parents to do their job.
Over the next week or two, I checked on those two babies several times. Sometimes they were there and sometimes they weren't. I learned that the parents move their babies from place to place in order to keep them safe.
So unless you absolutely know a baby bird is abandoned, please leave it be.
Take care family and friends - take good care in these uncertain times.
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