I was walking to meet Eliot Miller and his girlfriend, Sarah, both of whom are postdocs in bird science; Eliot is studing at UMSSL, and called me over to go birding with them.

I suddenly heard a lot of disturbance in a tree nearby, and stopped to investigate. Here’s what I saw:

Two

BLUE JAYS

were having a major altercation in the tree; I never did find out why! Though Blue Jays are bright blue, they managed to still camouflage themselves well in the tree: As they moved around, scolding, I managed to get a few more shots: Round and round they went, hopping, yelling at each other (there seemed to be no other intruder.)

Thanks to the West Nile virus, Jay populations have been decimated, and I don’t find these beautiful birds as often as I used to:

I enjoyed my interlude with the Jays as I went onwards to look at more birds, in the company of Eliot and Sarah.