When Michael and I moved into a house in Santa Barbara, I put whole peanuts on the back porch railing. Immediately they attracted the attention of a California Scrub-Jay.
Clearly the peanuts were the interest, but I felt honored, especially when the bird took a peanut that I held in my fingers. It was the first wild bird I ever got to know personally.
Soon, while Michael and I were having breakfast on the porch, it came and took peanuts from Michael, too. Jimmy Carter was President, and famous as a peanut farmer, so we called the jay Jimmy.
Over the next weeks, Jimmy accepted dozens of peanuts. He carried them to the lawn and beak-hammered them through the matted grass. He picked up a leaf or plucked a tuft of grass and pushed it down over the spot to conceal it.
When Michael’s parents came to visit, Jimmy made a new friend. My father-in-law liked to sit in the sun on the porch to ease his arthritis. He took some peanuts out with him. Jimmy hopped to the railing, watching this new person. Dad held out a peanut on his open palm, and Jimmy hopped fearlessly onto his hand.
Next time I looked out the window, there was Jimmy, feet braced against a trousered knee, leaning back and tugging on a peanut in a gnarled hand. Dad’s face wore a broad, untroubled smile as he let the bird win.
Jimmy raced back and forth between Dad and the lawn. Here was a human who would stay with the job.
Dad put a peanut in his cuff. Jimmy watched and then landed on Dad’s shoe and plucked out the peanut and buried it in the grass. Dad made a show of hiding a peanut in his cuff while actually concealing it under his hand. Jimmy flew straight to Dad’s knee, probed under the hand, and pulled out the peanut.
Every advance of trust that Dad earned was immediately bestowed upon Michael and me as well. Jimmy got so confident that if we left the porch door open, he would fly into the house and help himself to peanuts in the dish placed conveniently on the breakfast table. While we were eating breakfast!
We had frequent visits from Michael’s parents after that. We laughed, saying Dad came mostly to see Jimmy.
Michael’s father died that fall. My last recollections of him are of a man sitting on a sunny porch, playing tug-of-war with a wild bird. Happy.
All I want to do now is sit outside with a bowl of peanuts. I leave fresh peanuts for the squirrels every day. If I skip a day, the come to the window and scold me.
Lovely story, Diane. My wife says jays are just a little smarter than I am. I don’t think she’s giving them enough credit for their intelligence.