Jessa and I returned from the store one afternoon to find a troop of blue jays apparently losing their minds out behind the house. A certain amount of Cyanocitta high spirits we're accustomed to—blue jays evidently like being blue jays, and noisy is just part of the recipe. This was louder, and angrier, than standard blue jay raucousness, so while Jessa put our purchases away, I went out back to see what had them so riled.
Arriving at the alley, I discovered that it wasn't just the blue jays on high alert: a small flock of robins, a pair of red-headed woodpeckers, a downy woodpecker, and a yellow-shafted flicker were all mobbing an unseen predator. I was expecting a Cooper's hawk or a great horned owl...but instead found this sleepy eastern screech-owl trying to take a nap on the telephone wires.
Trying, but not succeeding. I rang Jess on her mobile to come out with the camera, and after a bit of grumbling—she had just got her shoes off—she joined me; all of these photos are hers, by the way. And while I can't really know, I think the owl may have appreciated our presence, as the avian crowd dispersed a bit and things quieted down a little.
We hear the trilling of screech-owls on a fairly regular basis on our evening walks around the neighbourhood, but we see them far less frequently, and usually not for very long, so this was a treat.
Eventually we too departed the alley, leaving the owl to its nap, and hopefully a successful evening's hunt.
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