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| Blue Jay |
I have been trying to photograph these Jays for weeks and was getting nowhere. This past fall I setup a new feeding station for the wildbirds in the area. I set the post about eight feet in front of the bay window, which face west, ideal for morning photo sessions. For the longest time not a bird visited the feeder, which made good sense, since theres not been a feeder here before. It takes time for the birds in your area to recognize the feeder as a food source. But once they do... the Chickadee were first showed up, then Nuthatches, Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers, some Dark-eyed Junco and a stray Goldfinch..With all that activity, it wasn't long before the pigs of the woods would show up; Jays. The Jays have been the most shy of the group, each time I approached the camera, which is setup at the bay window, they would fly off. No matter how slow I moved, they didn't like my presense and would depart with a crop full of seed before one click of the shutter button. Well, this morning I tried setting up a simple blind made up of two bath towels clothes pinned to the curtain rod. Only the lens of the camera parted the two towels, which allowed me to move more freely.. The posted image of the Blue Jay is the results of my make shift blind. Gotta love it! See more birding image at my
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That is a great Blue Jay picture! Nice work!
ReplyDeleteA lovely photo, sweetheart. I'm gonna go look at the rest at FLICKR! :)
ReplyDeleteYes, jays are leery of people, in general(like crows), but since they are corvids (the smartest types of birds--same family as the brilliant crows), they are extremely smart. If they see you feeding other birds, outside, regulalrly, eventually (it can take some time, depnding on how many are in your area), they will come around--at first when you are not there. But soon they will come by when you are there, and then, when they decide you are a friend--they quickly become braver than almost all the other birds (grackles can be pretty brazen I've found). (With bluejays, there is a very short turnaround time from leery to friendly, compared to birds like sparrows or the very reticent cardinals). They will practically eat out of your hand in a few weeks. You can recognize the indivuals, who also recognize you--and they will fly right over to you (that is, if you are alone, in a quiet place and have unsalted peanuts on hand! ;-) They are one of the most beautiful and intelligent of all birds and it's really fun to get know them. I just moved to Virginia, and hope to befriend more birds here, but had I been able to spend more time in my garden in DC, I am sure the bluejays would have been eating out of my hand, since they came so close, as did one rusty black bird who adopted me for a few weeks and would eat meals from my plate without any qualms at all. ~~Heidi
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