Stellar Jay Taken on a trip to Manning Park in June 2018

I have always liked Steller Jays. I remember when I was a kid at our North Vancouver home, we had a lot of trees in the backyard. In the Summertime, one of our favourite activities was sitting on our porch enjoying the nature of our backyard. Although our backyard wasn't very large, it had lots of trees, which gave us the illusion of being in the wild even within the city. We saw many birds while sitting on that porch. One Spring day, we heard a knock on the glass of the backyard porch door. When we investigated, we saw a Stellar Jay on our porch chair. He had flown into the glass door! He (we think it was a he but, to be honest, I did not know how to verify this) seemed to be alright because he got up a moment later and flew right back into the door again! He keep flying into the door for the next hour or so, only taking a break to poop on our porch chair. After about an hour, he flew off no worse for wear. Then we had to clean off the chair to enjoy the outdoors.

Stellar Jay being feed nut at a wood carver studio in June 2009

However, the Jay was back the next day pooping and flying into the door again! I don't know what was so interesting in our dining room. Maybe he wanted to critique the big ugly painting of Amsterdam Harbour hanging inside. He kept doing this all through the Spring. He kept coming back even though we put a large plastic sheet on the glass. Believe it or not, he came back each Spring for the next couple of years! He never seemed to be hurt. He must have had one thick skull! His return was so regular that we named him Sammy.

So, in honour of Sammy, I am adding some of my favourite Stellar Jay photographs to my website https://doriwildphoto.com. Let me know what you think of them.

Stellar Jay photographed in District North Vancouver in March 2020 while walking with my family