Magical ScrubJay

[natural23]

Magical ScrubJay

http://mysite.verizon.net/natdat2/

23

[TrippinBTM]

Interesting. how'd you get that bird to come so close? I know jays are said to be pretty bold, but that's incredible.

[warlock]

Wow! That was beautiful natural23. I sincerely thank you for sharing that with me. I hope she and her mate haven't died. :(


Such a beautiful bird and I imagine the years of you getting to know her made her feel more comfortable with you. It must have been a lovely treat for her to eat the almonds you gave her. That was so kind of you to give them to her.

Some of those shots are so close up and so incredible. I imagine you used a telephoto lense when she was in the tree.

That first shot of her back and her feathers forming the wing is incredible. I gather your into photography ?

Again thanks for sharing that natural23. The whole narration along with the pictures made it a joy to see and read. :)

I bet you will hold on to that experience and memorys for a long time. A very smart little creation by God and a beautiful bird. Such intense blue.

Warlock

[warlock]

Forgot to say.

I was amazed to see that she could swallow whole almonds. I gather that when you said one tag had slipped below the other that it had slid over her foot so as being unable for her to use it.

With tags on her foot natural23 she may have been taken somewhere else by the people that put those tags on her. So those tags could have been fixed (heres hoping).

Warlock

[natural23]

They are bold and often wise; really smart lil creatures. I have gotten close to lots of birds. Used to have a pigeon and a brown house sparrow hang-out with me in my shop. The sparrow was named "pee-beep" and a friend of mine and I tried to "enhance" communication with her, to see if we could do it. We would use animated, relatively 'non-self-conscious', expression that I am sure the neighbors appreciated very much. It worked and I have always wanted to quantify some of the experience (and many others). There are many other people doing this type of work now. A popular example is Dr. Patterson's work with Koko, people are also doing it with birds. There is "subtle" information that animals sense such that if one has the right state of mind and uses the correct patterns (I don't necessarily see these as separate) then one can easily 'connect' with other species. I have many examples of this from the writings of others and personal experience. Jays love almonds but they do not swallow them whole (from my knowledge). She would put one, two or three almonds in her beak and fly away to bury them and come back. And she would just stay next to me and rear her head back and come straight down on the nut with her beak, chipping off a piece that she would swallow (Yum). The male was always 'stand-offish' would stay about three feet from me. But she, the Magical ScrubJay, would land on my hand; would sometimes sleep and hunker-down within less than a foot of me. And she would often just hang-out somewhere nearby; I have scores of stories about this bird and her habits. Problem is, describing much of it is like "translating poetry" (a term I like to use); the source of poetry is in "langauges of the brain" that are other than 'spoken' and 'written' and herein resides a major portion of the art. I hope to write more about these experiences in the future. Gave this link to MoonJava, check it out as it points at the existence of one possible* vehicle for the "'subtle' information" that I referred to above. *Actually, I believe, from my experience, that this exists; but I am maintaining proper "scientific reserve":

http://www.hipforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=102848

23

[natural23]

I used a simple 2M pixel DigCam, but I have "played with it" to get a feel for what works. She would lean against my hand but she would not let me pat her on top of her body - she did not want that. The 'closeup' photo that you see of her 'hunkered down' I was about 18" from her. And I invest energy into trying to get a sense for the situation, for the photography and for what is correct to do in general. If a picture will cause "improper" interuption I will not use the cam. Also many animals know what eyes are and they seem to sometimes react to the presense of the camera.

She has a stump (look closely at the second picture). The story is quite detailed and involved but the gist is that I did not know her well enough while she was losing her leg to be able to easily "grab" her. And I would not do this if I sensed that it was not correct to do; I would have to have a second person there (she shys away when others are there possibly requiring a mist net - I actually tried this with an ornithologist but she stayed away), would have to have the proper equipment for removing the tags, etc. I hung-out with her during the loss of her leg; she was in agony and showed great faith. I should have done more. She grew to "love" me, I suppose. And I certainly grew to love her.

23

[natural23]

Warlock and BTM, my apologies about the mixed-up addressing of my responses. Also, I should add, that MSJ was clearly traumatized and I had to 'walk with fine balance' so as not to hurt her. Even the mist-net attempt was a real risk to her survival; tried other nets but she could see them and would not come close. Many other factors added; did not have a tool that would remove the tag, so without the the Dr. (the ornithologist) I needed a second person; and in using home-brew tools great care would have to be taken in order to not break or lacerate her leg; the shock that I alluded to earlier was a real consideration in this situation. Birds do lose legs and adapt, this well know amoung bird folk. She adapted in an amazing manner; the techniques including her use of the stump were very effective. She realized, I could see clearly, that efficiency was the name of the game in getting through her day.

23

[warlock]

Yes I was able to see MSJ's stump in your second photo natural23. When I had a closer look.

I'm glad to hear that she was able to adapt to only have one leg and one stump. :)

Warlock