I must say, as far as days go, last week was pretty good. Although the rain finally arrived at the end of the week, I was able to get a number of good runs in on the trail – definitely enough to remind me just how hard the July 50K ultra is going to be (link here). If you recall, that is the race I missed last year due to shattering my elbow a mere week before I was supposed to toe the line. It’s redemption year and building the base early to leave nothing to chance. Then my brother Ron was able to come down thanks to an opportunity to attend TransWorld down in St. Louis. Horrible name, but before you jump to conclusions, it is the premier Professional Haunt Trade Convention/Expo in the States (link here). This is somewhat of an “invite only” event and you have to prove you are in the haunt business to be allowed to attend. AMAZING. To put it into perspective it took us 3.5 hours just to make it through maybe a 3rd (at best) of the exhibits. While I recover from the trail training and the miles of expo walking, going to let Brad take over and take you through another “stellar” experience.
Take it away Brad…
If you haven’t seen the majesty of Yosemite Falls when there’s water flowing, add it to your bucket list of future destinations right now. Go ahead, I’ll wait.
We had been planning a trip to Yosemite for years, but something else always came up and it slid down our list. Last fall we decided to team it with other destinations we wanted to see Out West to make sure we’d end up going.
Sidebar story: Normally the waterfalls (Bridal Veil and Yosemite) only run in the spring when there’s ample snowpack melting. The winter before Jan and I went, Yosemite received record snowfall, some say on par with what they used to receive way back a hundred years ago. Others said it was twice as much as usual. A few of the roads in the park didn’t even open until late May or early June. Even when we went in September, the upper mountain roads were just then opening.
Quite breathtaking. Hit the jump to learn more about the falls and a rather stellar resident.
Yosemite falls is spectacular when the water is running in the spring. Jan and I were very fortunate to be there while water was still running off-season. As we stepped outside of the lodge each morning, there it was. The water drops over 2,400 feet through two cascades from the peak to the rock scrabble only a couple hundred yards from our lodge door. When water falls that far it loses its laminarity, (the quality or degree of being laminar, or a consistent flow, like the first few feet from a garden hose in the summer) meaning it turns into a mist. Intrigued Legal requires that I put a disclaimer here: Please do NOT stand directly under a 2000-foot waterfall.
Again, back on topic. I can hear Brian through the screen, “Focus Brad, this is supposed to be about birds.” On one of the many hikes Jan and I took to the base of the waterfall, these blue wonders were all over the place.
Sort of like sparrows at home, the Steller’s Jay (Cyanocitta stelleri) hops all over looking for food. They really don’t hold still all that long, so framing one is like taking photos of hummingbirds. Crank up the frame rate, ISO and shutter speed, and open up the aperture as wide as conditions allow, to hope to capture something usable.
At a glance when flying, the blue streak looks like a Mountain Bluebird. They do have a triangle of blue feathers on the front of their black heads. The rest of the bird, past the shoulders, is a bright blue. Coastal vs. inland birds have slightly different coloring. Steller’s Jays are a bit larger than the Bluebird, and much nosier.
As Jan and I were walking back from Lower Yosemite Falls, several people kept asking us what the squawking blue bird was. I suppose because we were carrying large cameras that we must also be experts on birds. Not yet, but we are working on it. We could hear either a repeated short squawk, or an elongated single squawk. The repeated squawks reminded me a little bit of a European Starling (scourge of my bird feeders during the winter). Jan and I say that it’s a Steller’s Jay, and 9 out of 10 times the other people would walk away saying Blue Jay while taking a photo with their smartphones. We politely corrected a few of them, but eventually gave up.
This Jay was one that Jan spotted in Kings Canyon not very far from the General Grant giant Sequoia tree. I think it was happy it found a nut all of the woodpeckers in the area missed that morning.
We saw Steller’s Jays every time we went into the mountains. They were all over the National Parks in California we visited this past summer. The photos from this story are from Yosemite and Kings Canyon. They didn’t seem to be wary of humans hiking and would be very near or just off trails.
The Blue Jay and the Steller’s Jay are the only New World Jays that use mud to build their nests. An excellent mimic with a large repertoire, Steller’s Jays can imitate other birds, squirrels, cats, dogs, chickens and some mechanical objects. We didn’t notice them imitating anything else, but any noise they may have made was drowned out by tourists taking selfies at the waterfalls.
During April the year before, Allyson, Jan and I were at Rocky Mountain National Park near Sprague Lake. After making appropriate relief stops after a long hike in the cold, Allyson came up to me and asked, “Padre, did you want to take a picture of that blue birdie over there?” I tried to look where she was pointing, but all I saw was mulch and shadows. Then one of the shadows moved.
Steller’s prefer conifer forests, which is where we always found them. Forests provide most of the food they like to eat: insects, seeds, berries, small animals including hatchlings. Around people they will pick through garbage, or an unguarded item on a picnic table. They also like to eat peanuts, sunflower seeds, acorns, or anything they can steal from other birds. Jays will store food in caches for lean times, and can remember where they hid the food.
A pair of Steller’s Jays will raise a single brood of 2-6 eggs in a season. Incubation and nesting are both about 16 days. Populations have been declining slightly since the late 1960’s, earning them a low concern for conservation at this point.
With proper food and shelter, a Steller’s Jay can live up to 16 years, but the average is a few years less than that.
Thank you for reading. If you want to see more Steller’s Jay photos, please visit here.
Credits:
Thanks again to Jan for proofreading and editing. Thanks to Jan for most of the photos in this article.
Wildlife Intrigued 
Great pictures of them, Brad! I like the picture where one is perched on a stump yelling at you with a raucous call. Also liked the first one showing a bold profile view.
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Thank you. I like it when Jan or I are able to capture a behavior photo instead of just the ID photo. I think it helps tell a better story.
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I’m amazed there is an invite only huants expo. That shows how big Halloween has grown in popularity. Next thing you know it will be a national holiday. Actually, there are a few national holidays I would be happy to see traded in for Halloween. I thought about you when we took Tristan’s dogs for a walk in the bosque this morning. There were tree roots of all evil calling your name. “¿Dónde está , Brian? ¿Dónde está , Brain?” I told them to shut up and pick on someone else.
Speaking of dogs, Tristan trains her dogs very well. We came across a couple with two Great Pyrenees, one old and lame, the other younger, and about to pull the owner over growling and lunging at Tristan’s dogs. The whole time, Tristan’s dogs just sat quietly watching the Great Pyrenees make a fool of himself, looking at him like, “Chill already! Dude!”
Beautiful photos of the falls and Jays, Jan and Brad. The Jays looked like sassy birds.
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They are a bit sassy Tim. There’s strength to be sassy in numbers. I’ll have to keep my ears open to see if the roots out West are calling Brian’s name as well. I know they certainly are around here.
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Keep your ears pealed and watch out while looking up for birds.
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I consider it a big thumb in the eye to those corporate marketers trying to jump Halloween and go directly to Halloween – clearly there is a still a huge following for those that huant. Thanks for defending me from those nasty RoAEs – they have been calling out to me as well on my training runs. That is incredible control by Tristan’s dogs – even though Pyrenees probably stand 6 times taller than them, our two smallest dogs’ TDS (tiny dog syndrome) would have taken over their brains and they would have torn out after them. The problem is keeping their drive in the ring and then shutting it down when they are not competing.
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Jake is a Golden Retriever Great Pyrenees cross so he’s the same size as the Great Pyrenees. Freyja is a mix with hound dog, so, while lighter weight, she’s not much smaller. TDS is a problem for energetic, tough minded Poodles.
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Oh, so they have big dog DNA in them – hound dogs even though lighter have the will of the tiny dog and the fight to back it up. It always makes me laugh when one of our Poodles starts giving lip to a big dog and the target turns and looks at them with absolute disbelief and shows them the paw.
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Freyja has bull terrier. She’s a sweetheart, but the big white fool might not have fared well if had gotten away from his owner and attached Freyja. She tries to play with Jake and he thinks she plays too rough.
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Sounds like that other dog got off lucky! Tristan knows how to pick ’em.
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And train them to be decent, polite and well mannered dogs.
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Yep!
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It’s such a bright blue! We have Stallar Jays at our ski hill on British Columbia but they aren’t such a bright blue. Maggie
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That’s kinda what we experienced in California, Maggie. The Steller’s seem to be more brightly colored east of the Rockies. Or at least more color saturation. I did pump up the color a bit for the ones at Yosemite, but toned it down a just a bit for the ones at RMNP. Jan and I will be in BC later this summer, I’ll keep my eyes out for them near the Gardens around Vancouver. Thanks for coming by.
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Hope you love Vancouver 😊
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Watch this space for future stories.
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Beautiful birds, Brad! We have two jays here in SW FL…Common blue jays and endangered scrub jays, which are rarely seen, although I have seen them at preserves.
Have a lovely week! 🐦⬛🦉🦆
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Thanks Cheryl! I’ve not seen a Scrub Jay . . . yet. Good target for future trips. We, too, have the “regular” Blue Jays around here. I can usually hear them long before I see them.
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Lovely bird indeed!
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Thank you very much. Striking colors, sometimes silly antics.
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What’s in a name? A jay is a jay is a jay. Did you see any rock climbers while visiting Yosemite?
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Yes we did Jerry. A few were trying out the sport very near the ground at the base of El Capitan. Others were 2/3 of the way up, far enough that my big zoom could only tell they were people and not birds.
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Incredible captures of a very accommodating Steller’s Jay! And how about the waterfall…Good timing!
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Thanks. We were very fortunate to see the falls that late in the year. Here’s to a large snowpack!
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Nice photos of this gorgeous jay that does not like to sit still. In my experience, most corvids are camera-shy. Or mischievous enough to wait for the photographer to focus and fly away just before the photo is taken. Rascals!
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Especially true with the ones from home, Tanja. These sat and posed for a second or two longer than usual. We do have a few empty frames from the encounter. Sensing no food being dropped or tossed their direction, they were on their way fairly quickly.
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Such opportunists! 🙂
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Very cool that you included both the “coastal” (black eyebrow) and the “interior” (white eyebrow) varieties of plumage. I wouldn’t have caught it in the field. And I love the shot of the falls, very lush-looking. Great post, Brad!
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Not sure what’s happening with WordPress “reply” function, but it attached my reply to your comment to the main story. Thank you Sam. We were lucky they are as common making it very easy to take photos of them. I’m sure they are accustomed to human tourists and aren’t as skittish as the Jays at home
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There are some definite weird things happening with WP – Sam has been helping me troubleshoot some of them.
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I have replies not going where they should and occasional letters not working regardless of the keyboard used. Glad I don’t have to fix it though.
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Thank you Sam. We were lucky they are as common making it very easy to take photos of them. I’m sure they are accustomed to human tourists and aren’t as skittish as the Jays at home.
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Now this is another beautiful blue bird. I so look forward to seeing this park as well. We did not travel as much this past year and hope to start going to some new places this summer and fall. Thank you Brad for the great photos and information.
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Thanks Sandra. I like when the birds pose to help with decent photos. Jan and I are heading out today to use our Annual Park Pass again. Stay tuned for another story.
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This is great! Thanks for sharing 🙂
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Glad you enjoyed it Lucy. Thanks for stopping by.
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