Looking Up, Part 2

Another day, another walk, more trees. Will the fun never stop? This time not all the trees are trees, though. And there are birds involved, too.

I know! Better hang onto your chair.

Let's start here:

I love the graceful twisting branches on this big old tree. And see that object right there in the centre? You're right, it IS pretty hard to see, so I'll just tell you: it's another crow. Not one of the neighbours, though, unless he/she followed me.
 
And here is a former tree, also known as a utility pole:

I could hear this gull - he was very loud! - but I couldn't see him at first. He blended in well with the pole and the sky. I think he was asking if I had any fries or burgers or doughnuts in my pocket for his dinner. Judging from his tone, he was used to getting what he wanted.  I picked up the pace to get away from his stern looks.

After that, I went looking for bluejays. On my walk the day before, there were a half a dozen in every other tree, calling out in their twangy, metallic voices, begging to have their pictures taken. Now they were nowhere to be found. Probably at a bluejay party somewhere, snickering over inattentive photographers and natural consequences and stuff.

So here's a photo nicked from Wikipedia, because they had a lovely one:

I truly hope Wikipedia doesn't mind me using their photo. If they do, they only need to say so, and I will remove it, and apologize sincerely from the bottom of my donkey heart.

 
Isn't he handsome? He's in the Corvid family, like the crow, which is something I didn't know until the past year.

Something I've known for quite awhile, in contrast, is that bluejays love to hide peanuts. For many years, our exterior Christmas decorations included a fake garland wound over and around the front porch railing. Every year without fail, when I took that garland down, I would find peanuts hidden under it. To truly appreciate this story, you must know that our decorations never went up before December 20 and came down by January 1. That doesn't seem like a lot of time for a bird to check out the new "evergreen growth" on our rail, decide to hide food in it, and actually get around to doing it. Maybe that's just my procrastinator's nature speaking. I always felt bad disturbing the peanuts, but I'm pretty sure the jays were hiding them all over the place, so it was probably okay.

More trees and more birds tomorrow, which will exhaust my small store of photos and cause me to move on to another topic. No updates yet on the crows who are moving in next door. Perhaps they have finished framing up the nest and are waiting for the drywallers to show up. If you've ever had a house built or a reno done, you'll know just how that feels.