Backyard Birds

There are a couple Blue Jays that have decided to nest in my backyard. They seem to nest nearby pretty much every year. I don’t know exactly where their nest is, but every time my cat goes outside, or a neighbors cat, or even raccoons, come around, the Jays are rustled from their nest, calling out to protect what’s theirs. At first, it can be pretty sweet pretty, but this particular call is the same, monotonous tone, and their call is fairly constant. So after about 5 minutes, or longer, it can start riding on the ears a little bit.

Last year, I had a couple Robins, built a nest, in the trees right outside my backdoor, but they never went further in regards to living in the nest. I think they ended a little two close to the Jays, and got an early eviction from their new home?

Finally, in today’s post we have a couple images of a Gilded Flicker. All of these birds in today’s post were difficult to photograph, but the Flicker in particular is a very skittish bird. They just don’t stick around long enough when humans are around. I don’t blame them either.

The Flicker is a cool bird in my opinion, except when they decide to peck the metal grate at the top of my chimney. Talk about loud? OMG! The first time I heard it, I didn’t know what it was, and the view point from my backyard to the chimney doesn’t make it easy to spot what might be up there making the noise. One day I walked out of my place to my car, and heard the familiar sound. I looked up and saw a Flicker pounding on the chimney top at the apartments from across the street. I was amazed. If anyone knows why they do this, please leave a comment?

Back to the Robins. This past Winter in North Portland, there was a small die off of Robins, folks didn’t know what had happened. Some tests where done on the dead birds and we discovered they had died from Alcohol Poisoning. Since the ground had frozen, they couldn’t find any worms to eat. So they turned to Holly Berries, that ended up a little more fermented then normal. How fascinating.

And Blue Jays. What can I say about Blue Jays? The bully of the bird world, they come into an area and bully their way about. I remember one morning while camping a long way back. I’m sleeping outside in the bag next to a picnic table. Early that morning, just as it was getting light, a Blue Jay comes up onto the table and starts squawking away. Waking me up from a very nice sleep. I haven’t been a very big fan of Blue Jays every since. They are indeed beautiful birds however.

I hope you enjoy this week’s post. Be sure to visit back next Saturday and every Saturday, for great images from my attempts at Documenting the Portland area, and beyond.