Hello Tweets,
I live at the north end of Madison Valley, just south of the Arboretum in
Seattle. A few days ago, I realized that the screeches I had been relegating
to "background noise" (i.e., a regular bird like a towhee) were actually
scrub jays, which have been vocalizing off and on almost every day for
weeks. Something about the calls made me think there might be young
involved, and finally this morning I witnessed an adult place food (or at
least its beak) into the beak of another bird that I assume was a young jay.
Both were sitting on my phone wire; the second bird was colored like the
adult except for having a gray head. I've now counted a total of four scrub
jays visible at once, I believe two adults and two young. Now that I'm
consciously as well as subconsciously aware of them, I hear them, it seems,
almost all the time. I have not yet been able to locate a nest, but the
jays are either in my yard (yesterday sitting on my front porch rail) or on
its fringes almost all day. I feel very fortunate to have had my yard (or my
neighbors') chosen as a jay nursery!

Good birding,
Trileigh Tucker