This jay flew down into the garden a few days ago. They’re like the coyotes of the bird world: adaptable, tough, mischievous—and smart.
About Lloyd Kahn
Lloyd Kahn started building his own home in the early '60s and went on to publish books showing homeowners how they could build their own homes with their own hands. He got his start in publishing by working as the shelter editor of the
Whole Earth Catalog with Stewart Brand in the late '60s. He has since authored six highly-graphic books on homemade building, all of which are interrelated. The books, "The Shelter Library Of Building Books," include
Shelter,
Shelter II (1978),
Home Work (2004),
Builders of the Pacific Coast (2008),
Tiny Homes (2012), and
Tiny Homes on the Move (2014). Lloyd operates from Northern California studio built of recycled lumber, set in the midst of a vegetable garden, and hooked into the world via five Mac computers. You can check out videos (one with over 450,000 views) on Lloyd by doing a search on YouTube:
While this bird is blue, and a Jay, it looks nothing like a Blue Jay (at least as seen around Western Massachusetts). I'd vote for a Western Scrub-Jay.
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Western_Scrub-Jay/id
jhm-Thanks, you're right! I changed the designation.
Just to be clear, I don't think a change was strictly necessary. The bird is a blue Jay and the capital 'b' is appropriate at the beginning of the post's title.
As I see Blue Jays around my house, I read the title as such, and the image did not match (albeit, they both being Jays, the behavior you describe, and the birds' general demeanor did jibe quite well), sending me to my reference books.
In fact, if one is inclined to pick nits, the new title is more wrong, as Scrub-Jay seems to be hyphenated.