Just Like In The Movies!

  More oft than not, the Bayou Neighborhood Watch is spot on with their calls.  I am referring to the network of blue jays who send up the alarm whenever a predator is near.  I can pretty much depend on the accuracy of their alarms...pretty much.   Then, again, if that predator is a fat and lazy thing, the alarm is moot.

  Yesterday evening, the alarms started.  This time, it was close...too close...and frantic...too frantic.  My first thought was that our huge resident rat snake had made an appearance in the arbor.  Since the seven foot long snake has not been seen in a while, this was the perfect chance to get a photograph.  With camera in hand, I slipped out the front door and eased my way to the east arbor.  Here the rose brambles were wild and woolly!  The neglected arbor seemed to be the perfect place for the snake to reside but no snake was found.  Instead of a threatening predator, I found a confused cat.  Fat and lazy, Ms. Nycto had been snoozing beneath the arbor when she was literally attacked by an angry mob of blue jays.  The bewildered cat had no idea what she had done to merit such a brutal awakening.  She darted beneath the house to escape leaving me to face the wrathful jays.  I was being dive-bombed from every angle and being hit by a bird is no fun.  It hurts!  This was like being in the midst of the Alfred Hitchcock movie "The Birds"!  It was not fun!

  Then I spied the source of all this ruckus.  About three feet from where Ms. Nycto had been napping, a baby jay was frozen in fear.  The little bird had obviously been learning to fly and made a crash landing next to the sleeping cat.  Once the parent birds realized how close their little one was to the potential predator, they sent up the call and every bird in the county seemed to come to their aid.  Once the cat made her retreat, the birds transferred their attack to me as I had nearly stepped upon the baby jay.  

  I picked up the little troublemaker and placed him high on the fence post.  There he could have another chance at a good takeoff without struggling too much.  With the birds still screaming at me, I made like the cat and took a hasty retreat. She and I did not need to be pelted by birds and Baby Jay needed to perfect his flying skills before it got too dark.