[birding] Fluffy and cute, unless you're a jay

[Lisa Millbank]

This morning, I was riding down Bethel St. toward Alexander Ave.  I heard an extreme scrub-jay freak-out in a particular tree, with more jays streaming into the tree from all over the neighborhood.  A few crows flew over to investigate, but they soon left, uninterested.  I thought whatever the jays were upset about must be relatively small, as it was not worth the crows' trouble.
  
A dozen or more jays were arranged around their mysterious and scary adversary.  By looking around at the center of the "sphere" of screaming jays, I finally spotted a fluffy lump.  There were two fledgling Western Screech-owls!  The little owls had small, fluffy ear tufts and fine gray barring.  They were exceedingly cute, but unfortunately, my photos did not turn out.  I did get a decent video.  A couple of hours later, the little guys had gone somewhere else, perhaps to find a quieter place to sleep.

Lisa
www.neighborhood-naturalist.com 
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