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Screeper Birds!
- Details
- Published on Thursday, 21 July 2011 23:17
- Written by melne
I'm cuckoo for birds.
When it comes to fins, fur or feathers, I'm on the Feathered side. From majestic eagles to diminuitive hummingbirds, pigeons or falcons, I love them all. You've heard of the crazy cat lady? Well, I guess I'm the crazy bird lady.
I have two adorable green cheek conures, Cheeky and Sage that live inside with me, but outside I have some special friends as well.
Two of my "besties" are a pair of Scrub Jays, the first of whom made my acquaintance the afternoon after I'd been forced to put my Bronze Wing Pionus to sleep after a years-long and expensive battle with Avian Tuberculosis.
I came home, drained, grieving the loss of my loved one. I decided to play some guitar to get my mind on something else. At a certain point, I turned to the window and saw a Scrub Jay on the wisteria, staring in at me.
I looked at him, made eye contact, and he hopped closer. I lifted my hand and waved a "hello" to him. I thought he'd fly away with the motion, but instead he hopped closer. I approached the window, and he hopped even closer.
Weird! I thought, so I grabbed some almonds and opened the back door. I laid the nuts on the railing, and the bird flew right over to the railing within a foot of me and took an almond. He returned again and again for some free nuts.
I couldn't help but think that somehow my dear blue parrot, in death, somehow told this wild blue bird that someone needed a feathered friend right about then. The coincidence of that day this Scrub Jay showing up and being friendly... it was just too weird.
So in the weeks that followed, since he seemed so friendly, I decided to see if he would take nuts from my hand--and he did! Oddly, he would pass over freely-available nuts to come take them out of my hand, as if that nut was the best nut of them all. It was really great to have the Scrub Jay's trust. I decided to name him, and having been recently reading "Lord of the Rings," decided that he would be called "Samwise Gamgee" after the brave and loyal hobbit.
Some weeks later, he brought his mate, too! Now you can't tell the male and female Scrub Jays apart, so I dropped the Samwise name, since I didn't know who was who. And based on their raucous call, just started calling them "Screeper birds" and individually, "Screeps."
They're really smart birds, and will come to the window to find me so they can get their handout. It's quite adorable!
