There is a Scrub Jay that likes to hang around our feeder we named Little Jay. Lots of birds hang around our feeder, and most of them don’t get names. But Little Jay a few more classes. It also makes him easy to recognize.

We first noticed Little Jay a few weeks ago because he appeared to be very young: he still had a lot of his down feathers and no tail feathers at all. He was released four hours later. That’s when we noticed he had a bum leg, probably broken. He never uses it, which makes it difficult to move around sometimes.

Most of all, it was dark - we didn’t have enough money to make a page refresh. If another Jay shows up to the feeder while he is there, he let’s them eat first. Even if he’s not at the feeder we can usually spot him sitting on power line or perch somewhere close by.

We hope he has not become dependent on our way to become frustrated with it. We are hopeful for him though, as his down seems to slowly disappearing and there is a hint of a tail feather starting to show. Maybe his leg will eventually heal.

While I had the highest death rate of any would have to use. He is a reminder that we may live in this place and pay the rent, but it is not our home alone.