Meeting All the Neighbors

The wildlife up here is fascinating. Just the other day that coyote I saw a few weeks back walked through the front yard. I discovered elk poo in the yard yesterday, which means that it was exceptionally close to the house. (Usually they come through the back.) There's a bobcat in the neighborhood, though we're not sure where, and a couple mornings ago we woke to hear mountain lions in the distance talking to each other. (If you've never heard a mountain lion, it's kind of freaky, like someone is screaming in the distance.)

And then of course there are the birds. Yesterday I came home to a bunch of ravens hanging out in the front yard, which I think is great. I love ravens and crows; they're wickedly smart and I think beautiful birds. (In fact, the ring tone on my new phone is the call of an American crow.) Cameron's uncle gave us a window feeder so that we could see the birds come right to the window and not have to worry about the bears. (I hope.) It took a while for them to find it, but now they're in it all the time: mostly pygmy nuthatches, mountain chickadees, and sparrows. They all hang out in the tree off the porch and chatter away at lunchtime. It's great. This morning, I had a Steller's Jay at the window. That's one of these:

They're relatives of blue jays and are common in the area although this is the first one I've seen. He tried to get to the feeder and then realized he was too big. When that happened he sat on a branch of the tree over the porch, looking in the window at me, and started screaming at me. Evidently he was none too happy. All in all I'm not crazy about having a Jay at my feeder because they are kind of mean and I know he will chase away all the nuthatches and chickadees. Did you know that jays will mimic the call of a bird of prey so that the other birds in the area will take off and leave their nests unattended? Then the jay will invade the nest and kill their babies. Yeesh.