Hi Tweeters,

This thread reminded us of this post "A Flash of Gold" made to
Tweeters several years ago:

"A friend has been training with his daughter to climb Mt. Rainier
later this summer.?His training regime included hiking up Mt. Si with
increasingly heavy packs.?On his last trip they stopped at the top of
Mt. Si to have lunch.?As they sat eating, several Gray Jays appeared
begging for food.?As Jim was eating he felt a crack and realized that a
gold bridge had broken loose.?As Jim was removing the bridge from his
mouth, a Jay flew up and grabbed the bridge with its beak and flew to
some nearby trees and shrubs.?Of course they thought that the bridge
was lost forever, but as the Jay flew away his daughter saw a flash of
gold where the Jay had landed.?They rushed over and found the gold
bridge, which the Jay had dropped (not edible)".

And another story:

On Espanola (Hood) Island in the Galapagos we were doing a research
project on Tropidurus (Lava Lizard) involving measurements of the
lizards, their temperature readings, as well as in the temperature of
the ambient environment. Flocks of Hood Island Mocking Birds followed
us around our research area borrowing our colored pencils,
thermometers, rulers, forceps and anything else that was not carefully
anchored or put away. Unfortunately they soon learned to open our
zippered pack compartments to borrow all they could reach (including
our lunch) and never returned some valuable equipment.

?Don and Sandi McVay
dmcvay at cmc.net
Seattle