Our old friend, the Whiskey-Jack, is my favourite bird in the Canadian Rockies. Pretty, and brazenly courageous, many days you have at least one at your campsite during breakfast.
This Camp Robber, the Gray Jay, is also known variously as venison-hawk, grease-bird, lumberjack, meat-bird, Canada Jay or even Moose Bird in various parts of it’s range.
Crow wants a wild Gray Jay as a “pet” at her cabin. She had had a magic experience with those birds on the trail:
One morning, high up a pass in the North Cascades, I woke up on a wide section of trail that I had decided was as far as I could go the night before. Lying in my bag, looking out at the glorious view and the morning sun, I reach into my food sack and pulled out a bar for breakfast. As I unwrapped it, a Gray Jay lighted by me. Even though I don’t approve of feeding animals, I held a piece of my bar between my fingers; it hopped on over and took it. Then two others showed up. One landed on my pack that was laying next to me; we finished off the bar together. When the bar was gone, so were they. …
I’ve had them alight on me. Here’s a hiker who had one land on her head:
Reading Frank — Frank in Oz, one of our favourite sites. (linked in the right hand navigation under Blogs) — I clicked on the Hinchinbrook Island link (9 posts). Next, I navigated to the bottom of the page. And worked my way back up to the top.
… “With its lush rainforests, rugged, misty and heath-covered mountains, sweeping sandy beaches, rocky headlands, paperbark and palm wetlands, mangrove-fringed shores and extensive open forests and woodlands, Hinchinbrook Island National Park is one of the world’s most outstanding island parks.”
besthike.com 