Singing the blues again

It was a fairly long day for me today and I've got a bunch of photos to share, so I'm going to keep this intro short and sweet: whereas yesterday it was a Blue Heron taking center stage, today's blog features some Blue Jays, courtesy of a morning spent enjoying breakfast with Mom and Dad. Usually when I'm around taking photos the jays are sporadic visitors at best, but on this occasion they were on and around the feeders the entire time I was there. Maybe the heron put in a good word for me or something...

A pair of jays sharing the feeder:



I liked this one's pose:



I almost didn't post this one, and then I saw the spray of seeds the outgoing bird's departure sent flying off the left side of the feeder:



There are several shots in today's post that I wish had come out a bit clearer than they did, but it was just overcast enough to prevent me from using the faster shutter speed I normally employ when photographing birds:



A jay with a crop full of seed:



A few more spread-wing shots:







I loved how the Chickadee that's also in this shot looks like it's suspended in midair:



I caught this one coming off the feeder:



More incoming/outgoing traffic:



This one took a sharp turn on its way to the feeder...



...but managed to get things straightened out in time to land:



Fancy meeting you here again:



Another catch of a jay taking off:



Not quite as streamlined a landing as we've seen with the other birds:



Closing things out with the Blue Jays, I liked the slight wing fan I caught on this bird:



And because it's been far too long, a couple of Kaylee shots to close things out. She was even thoughtful enough to get up in the blue chair so I'd be able to stick to my theme for the day: