At a traveler’s lodge along the Trinidad bluff overlooking the sea, some staff were cleaning an emptied cabin. As they worked, in hopped a small inspector, a troublemaker in-training, a fledgling Steller’s Jay.
To keep him safe, they put him in a box and kept an eye out for parents. After a few hours, they hadn’t seen any, so they brought the little guy to Humboldt Wildlife Care Center/bird ally x. It was late on Friday, close to our closing time.
We examined the bird – he was well hydrated, in good body condition, no injuries, no parasites – in short; he was the portrait of well-cared for baby, meaning, it was likely that we could find his family and reunite them.
We kept him overnight, set up with our special diet for all corvids, a blend of hard boiled egg yolk, shredded squash, fish cut into small bits, blueberries and mealworms – simply irresistable!
He ate some overnight.
In the morning, we took him back to the location he was found. Permit me a brief digression to note that when the day’s workplace is just about anywhere outdoors in our region, it’s a day spent in beauty. When it comes to magnificent landscapes, Trinidad is all of that and a bag of chips.
When we arrived at the site, we took a look around, not seeing any adult Jays at first. I walked up the to the office, but no one was at the desk. As I walked back down, Laura, who leads most “reunite” missions, over the years becoming our specialist, was walking up. Just as we were close enough to talk, an adult Jay landed in a tree just above us. And then we saw another land nearby. We went to the car and got the little one out. Taking him out caused him to complain loudly to any who would listen. His cry landed on very sympathetic ears. In less than a minute he was surrounded by family. In less than two minutes they were giving him food. It was nearly celebratory. They joy of the Jays to have their baby back was easy to see.
It’s not an ordinary, everyday task to find a lost baby’s parents and reunite them. It was good that the staff had taken action and got the baby to specialists who would know what to do and be able to do it.
It’s a privilege to be able to help the family of Jays. It’s also a privilege to be able to help people out, when the regular, human-contrived world of work-days and rental cabins, tasks and closing times lead somehow into the blaze of reality, and the situation is ancient and brand new and it’s not clear what to do. It’s a privilege and a joy and also a freighted and worrisome thing to enter that blaze on behalf of people and the wild and for a moment, mend the stitching in the fabric we share. Thank you for supporting our mission and making our work possible.
photos: Laura Corsiglia/bax
