I locked myself out of the house again today and like most people, episodes like this are evidence of my aloof absorption into the things I have to do and the places I need to be. If I was paying more attention, there’s a good chance this wouldn’t happen. So, rather than rendering something else that needed to be fixed around the house, my mother and my 88 year old Granny were good enough to help me with an extra key so I could carry on with my day.
Waiting for them to arrive, I was reminded once again about my disdain for the North American Blue Jay, a pesky bird that has returned to irritate my few moments of serenity as the first sounds of Spring begin the annual concerto.
There are few birds more striking and regal than the blue jay. With a Latin name of Cyanitta Cristata (meaning crested blue chattering bird) this bird is pimped for Nature with a crown and distinct military-like blue, white and black patterns. It’s rare that you ever see a frail blue jay too because these critters know how to feed and if they’re not eating nuts and berries, they are robbing nests for warm eggs. Can you imagine what would befriend a person who would commit such a crime?
If this wasn’t enough reason to sneer at this creature, there’s one thing that surely provides enough consideration to ban them completely from my neighborhood. There is nothing more irritating than a blue jay shriek. At the moment of this paragraph, there are four in a Japanese maple in my yard, staring and screaming at each other like they know – that I don’t like them. Henry David Thoreau has even quoted the bird’s sound as an “unrelenting steel-cold scream.”
My former wife’s grandfather hated blue jays too. I thought it was odd that he took so much delight in shooting these birds with a 22 rifle in his backyard. After years of obnoxious noise in the trees around my home in the cradle of the forest, I’d consider the thought too if my neighbors weren’t so darn close.
It’s in the mornings when they irritate me the most. I can’t count the number of days my slumber has been interrupted by the squawking buzzer sound they make. It’s worse than a dozen knarly fingernails digging into a chalkboard. I’ve thrown rocks, sticks and made plenty of noise, but they keep coming back and they like to hang out with friends, or sometimes they just sit and squeal over and over again like an annoying siren.
I wrote this blog entry outside and for the moment a crow is laughing in the distance, a blue bird sings a light melody and a few other birds add a few rhythms and in the middle of it all – a gang of arrogant, loud blue jays – who need to learn a new song or two.
Click here to hear this annoying squawker and forgive my rant, but I always wanted to complain about these critters and today seemed to be appropriate.