Blue jays and Paper plates...

Still revealing some of the weirder things in my freezer... Now I'm not saying this is Bigfoot related. Honestly? I have NO idea how or why this beautiful bird ended up on this chair on the north end of my porch. Here are the facts.... I do have a cat, but he doesn't kill things and bring them to me like some cats do. He's four years old and I have never found the tell tail evidence of anything that he has killed including birds. And if any of you have ever seen the area where a bird has been dispatched, you know you will find feathers laying around, and one wing here and another there...  This Blue Jay was in a sort of 'dried-out' state with a wound to it's chest. Otherwise it was in perfect condition. Here is the thing that made the dead bird give me pause... The weekend before I found this bird, I had been mowing my yard. It had been really warm May day. So I'd stopped at the halfway mark, turned off the mower, got a bottle of water and was sitting outside on the driveway railroad tie cooling off and re-hydrating. I don't know about you, but I talk to myself a lot. And as I was sitting there, it occurred to me that I had not seen the Blue Jay family in a while. And I even said out loud, "I wonder where the Blue Jay's are? I haven't seen them?"

Then I find the dead Blue Jay in a chair on my porch. Coincidence? Could be... but just kind of weird.

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Paper plates... In the past, paper plates were used to feed pancakes and other foods to the "Locals". So I continued the tradition. I typically put the date on the underside of the plate. And I generally only use one plate. Critters such as raccoons, possums, and others took the food most nights, it was easy to tell because they left such a mess! Bits of food everywhere and sometimes I could even see their little teeth marks. But every 4th or 5 day it would be completely different.

The plate might be removed from the crate, and no where to be found, or I would find it some distance in the woods, but always.... it would be completely clean with possibly a little oily residue. No bite marks, or scratches, but looking like it was licked clean. 

When I would find these clean plates inside or outside the feeding crate, I would use gloves, and put them in paper bags in the freezer... Hoping and praying someday, we would be able to have the DNA run on them. 

                                                                                      The feeding crate

One day I noticed something interesting had happened... It appeared to me that they had returned a paper plate from an earlier feeding, when I'd had to use two plates because the food was heavy. I sent a memo to the team... Here it is...

Maybe I can get them to return the royal blue Fiesta plate they took when I shared the dozen cookies?  

I won't hold my breath....

Warmest regards,
Sybilla