The Picky Shopper

Before we moved to Eastern Washington we lived on the other side of the state in Vancouver. We had a great house with a nice backyard filled with squirrels and a variety of birds. I put up feeders for both and always had a good supply of peanuts. My big ragdoll cat Tasha used to lay at the patio door to keep an eye on the squirrels.

We had a lot of Blue Jays and they didn't really care about the bird feeder but were more interested in the squirrel's peanut supply. The squirrel feeder had a top that the squirrel's would open and take out the nuts. Some of the Blue Jay's watched and learned how to open the feeder but they couldn't get it to stay open long enough to get grab a peanut.

One day I was watching this and put a handful of peanuts on the ground at the edge of the patio. As long as I was on the patio the birds would just sit in the trees and watch. All except one.

We had one little Blue Jay that got so tame she would take peanuts right out of my hand. If I put some down on the patio or on a table she would "go shopping". We called her Miss Picky and she, like most girls, loved to shop. She would pick up a peanut and shake it, if it didn't sound right she would drop it and pick up another one. Shake, drop, shake, drop until she found one she liked. When she finally decided on just the right one she would fly into a nearby tree and eat it then come back and start the process again.


Our picky little shopper would come almost every day. She even seem to know what time I got home from work and would sometimes be waiting for me at the patio door.