Bye Bye Birdies!

A few weeks ago, we had a nasty storm that brought down a fairly small tree in our backyard.  When Mommy and Daddy went to check out the damage, I noticed something small hopping around on the ground nearby.  After doing some investigative sniffing, I let everyone know there was a baby blue jay on the ground!  Thankfully for the bird, it was on the other side of our fence.  Mommy decided to send the three of us inside, and then she returned with her camera.  I was a little offended.  After all, I found the baby.  Shouldn't I get to check it out closer too?

Mommy found one baby bird in the grass and one on a low branch of the tree.  At the same time, the birds' parents found her!  They were NOT happy with Mommy snooping around.  They squawked and flew back and forth between trees flapping their wings.  Thankfully they never made any moves towards her (although that would have served her right for not letting me share in this adventure).

About an hour later, Mommy left me inside (AGAIN) and went back out to see where the babies were.  One was still hanging out under the tree and the other was headed for greener pastures.  Neither bird seemed to be able to actually fly yet.  They just sort of hopped around.  Daddy figured they had recently been kicked out of the nest and told it was time to fall or fly!

The next day while playing ball outside with us, Mommy noticed two little bouncing blobs in the yard.  She rushed us inside (not again!?) and ran back out with her camera.  She discovered FOUR baby blue jays and this time they were inside the fence!  She watched as closely as she dared under the watchful eyes of the birds' parents.  She says they were super cute to watch hopping around.  I wouldn't know first hand since I was denied that experience.  [sigh]

We didn't see the babies after that.  I can only assume they learned to fly or at least realized our backyard was not an ideal location considering three dawgs lived nearby.  I wonder if dawgs ever get to a certain age where their parents kick them out?  Hmmm . . . I'll have to look into this.

Jenna