We’ve had blue jays as visitors to our yard for years, but this year is unique. I think one of last year’s fledgling jays picked our yard for his home. Specifically, the pair of jays nested in this pine tree right next to our porch.
This has led to our cats watching out the front windows and the blue jays watching back.
So our house is filled with the sounds of jays yelling at cats while cats chitter at the jays. Even when neither is making noise they still keep an eye on each other.
It is hours of solid cat entertainment.
The jays are less concerned about humans. In fact they seem calmer if a human is in view along with the cats, as if they know that the humans will control the cats. However on the day when I was photographing flowers near the nesting tree, the jays expressed loud opinions.
They kept a close watch on me to make sure I wasn’t going to find their nest.
However it is also possible that the yelling was less about the nest and more because they wanted me to go get some peanuts for them. So I did that too.
Blue Jays are noisy, pushy, bossy birds. I like them and am happy to befriend this pair. Sometime in the next few weeks their babies will be ready to fly and then they’ll stop guarding my front porch so closely. I will be glad to have the yelling and chittering be a little less constant, but I also hope they still come and visit.
Thank you for these fun pictures. You might be interested to know that the birds in these pictures are Woodhouse’s Scrub Jays, Aphelocoma woodhouseii. The blue jay, Cyanocitta cristata, has a distinctive crest on its head and stripes on its tail. The blue jay is rarely seen in the intermountain west.
Yup! Out here in the west the colloquial name for these birds is “Blue Jay” but you’re correct about the scientific names. I’ve only ever seen an Eastern Blue Jay twice in my life.