On the afternoon of 7/12/2015 my wife called to me from the kitchen and told me that there was a Western Scrub jay in the yard!  I thought it doubtful since I have never seen one in Western Washington but I rushed to the ;window, thinking that we might have a Stellar’s jay in the yard, itself a very rare visitor.  However my wife was right… it was a Scrub jay!

I raced for my camera and sneaked out the door, trying to surreptitiously set up my camera before the bird left.  Unfortunately I was in its full view.  I managed one lousy photo before it briefly jumped to a staging stick in my inventory and then disappeared into a group of young madrone and fir trees.  The photo was good enough for identification but not much else.

Thus began a wait to see if the bird would reappear.  Fifty minutes later there was a combination among some chickadees and nuthatches at the edge of one of the madrones, and a minute or so later the Scrub jay flew out of the trees and onto one of our static bird baths in the yard.  I began taking photos and continued as it flew to a staging stick for our platform feeder and then back into the madrones.  Fortunately when it entered the madrones it landed on a perch that gave me a good visual corridor so I was able to obtain even more photos!

We’ve lived in the Cap Sante neighborhood for over 14 years and this is the first Scrub jay we’ve had in the neighborhood, to my knowledge.  Indeed, it’s the first I’ve seen in Western Washington… and it chose to show itself in our yard while I had my camera ready!