What I Saw When I Was Still

Today I sat on the deck again and surveyed my sister Marcia's backyard. When I had been there for about 15 minutes, a Bluejay flew down carrying something in his mouth, which he laid in the grass. Then he poked around a bit and I thought perhaps he had decided that the thing he had brought was not what he really wanted and he hoped to find something more appealing in our yard. He picked up a fallen leaf, put it down and gave it a tap. Next he picked up something else, which I took for the preferred thing he had been looking for, put that down, then picked up another fallen leaf, put that down and gave it a tap, tap. Then he flew away over the fence.

It was then that I realized that the Bluejay might have used the leaf to cover something, perhaps two things, so I got up to investigate. Sure enough, under one leaf I discovered a morsel of dry dog food, possibly taken from the dog next door. But even more interesting, under another leaf was a piece of wood about one inch long and one-quarter inch wide (probably a piece of mulch), and under that was another bit of kibble!

Well, of course, I ran to get the camera. See what happens when you stay still outside for a few minutes? It was so awesome! I felt like one of those people you see on National Geographic channel who discover that animals in the wild do things you never thought they would do! Wow!