A late-day shot of the beautiful pond in the shadow of Forgetmenot Mountain, near Bragg Creek, Alberta.
This cheeky gray jay (whiskey jack) was out with his buddies, buzzing daringly near my hubby and I, looking for handouts. The pond is a popular picnic site and fishing hole during the summer, so the birds are used to getting “people” food. I know they don’t migrate south for the winter, but I had to look up their cold-weather diet: like their Corvidae relatives magpies and crows, they’ll eat pretty much anything from fruit to carrion, and they’ll even cache food in trees (actually, “on” trees is more accurate, as they apparently glue their food to tree branches using their saliva). Interesting little guys. I find them so entertaining to watch.
Flowery Prose. 