How to Befriend a Bluejay

This thing with the blue jays started by accident.

It was the chipmunks I was friends with first.  For so many years now, part of the charm of being up at the cottage was that you could make friends with the chipmunks.  Some members of our family are more enamoured with this endeavour than others.  But there's enough of us who makes sure there are peanuts, and who sit out on the deck quietly enough for long enough to eventually get our friends to take them from our hands.  In the warmer weather, when I'm working out on the deck, I usually have some peanuts nearby.  Those little guys are cute, and they keep me company.

Truth be told, the blue jays kind of crashed that party.

I was surprised at first.  I hadn't seen that many blue jays around in past years, which was sad because they're magnificent and vibrant, and sighting one had been a rare thing.  But all of a sudden, on a day in late August, there were what I counted as no less than thirteen birds, all trying to see who was brave enough to jump down on the deck with me to snatch a treat.

Well.  If you beautiful creatures want to be part of this arrangement with the peanuts, that's just fine by me.  

And for the next few seasons it's been like that; mostly about the chipmunks, but with a seasonal visit from the jays.

Until this year.

Something just clicked this year.  They became regular visitors.  To the point where I have to find a way to protect the jays' peanuts from the chipmunks' peanuts, since the chipmunks are still far more comfortable with me, and will quickly take away anything I've left for anyone else.  Even if I thought leaving peanuts on the deck railing was a good way to keep the peanuts separate.  A big pile on the deck for the chipmunks, and some spaced out along the rail for the blue jays.  But nope.  Chipmunks found their way up there and started stuffing their wee faces.  Literally.

The big difference is that the chipmunks aren't eating the peanuts, they're storing them.  The jays are here for breakfast.  That means the chipmunks can haul away a lot more peanuts faster than the jays can swoop down, pick up a peanut, fly back up into the trees, break it open, have a snack, and then swoop down again.  If the jays take too long, the chipmunks are up on the rail, helping themselves.

I don't blame them.  It's not like there are signs or anything.  But largely, the blue jays lose out.

And then the weather changes and now I'm working from indoors, looking out over the deck railing to the water, around at the front of the building.  This is not where I've put peanuts out before.  But the jays, they see me through the window.  And the come and sit on the rail right in front of me.  And they make some noise.  "Where's our breakfast?" they ask.

In case you think I'm making this up, people who know way more about these things than I do confirm that blue jays are very intelligent, and actually recognize human faces when associated with a food source.   And while I am not interested in gaining a pet per se, not in the chipmunks or in the blue jays, I do enjoy the interactions.  Quite a bit actually.  Some of it is because, well, it's all the fun factor, with out having to clean any cages.  But a lot of it is just how simple and good is the joy of connecting with God's forest friends.  Sounds sappy perhaps, but it honestly lifts my spirits.

And here's a feature of our deck.  The chipmunks seem to have more difficulty getting up on the railing of the front deck than they do the side deck where I had been leaving peanuts for the blue jays previously.  The result is, over the past few cooler days, I've had lots of happy company.

Jesus talked about birds sometimes.  In one part of His greatest sermon, known as 'The Sermon on the Mount,' He compared God's care for the birds with His care for us.

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.  Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?  Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not much more valuable than they?  Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life."

Matthew 6:25-27

And I'm putting out the peanuts and the Spirit brings these words to mind, adding:  "Ruth Anne, if you can care this much, and find this much joy in the jays and the chipmunks, how much more do I care for and find delight in you?"

Oh yeah.  Right.  Slow breath.  

All the while I've been writing this it's been raining rather heavily.  But just now it stopped.  I've been waiting until someone comes calling to put out any peanuts, so as to reinforce the connection between their 'asking' and my providing.  No customers just in these first few rain free minutes, so we'll see.

Hope this Wednesday leading to Thanksgiving Weekend finds you safe and grateful, and finding joy in all the little spaces of life.