Anna-Maria Paszterko

The Steller's Jay is a jay native to western North America, closely related to the Blue Jay found in the rest of the continent, but with a black head and upper body. It is also known as the Long-crested Jay, Mountain Jay, and Pine Jay. Wikipedia

He looks like he's doing the happy dance, it's awesome....

I work very early in the morning, I saw something moving in the dark and thought it was a coyote or a dog, but when the animal came closer I saw it was a beautiful little red fox. We stood and stared at each other for what seemed like an hour. She came within about two feet of me and never moved when I slowly got down on one knee trying to make myself look smaller. For the next 3 months we did this little ritual almost daily, and one morning she didn't come, I had feared something terrible had happened to her and when it became light outside I went and looked for her. I live in the country and really have no neighbours to speak of but a lot of coyotes and wild dogs here. I spent over an hour in the woods looking for her and by that time I was so cold because there was over 3 feet of snow and it was still around -10 outside, and from the corner of my eye I caught a glimpse of something small and brown. I quickly dropped to my stomach as not to scare whatever it was, it was a baby fox the size of a small stuffed toy. It's little eyes were a blue grey and it was a fluffy chocolate brown, it didn't walk very well but it was still so very young. The mother fox that I had come to name Lily had spotted me and ushered the little kit into the den, I never moved from my stomach for almost three hours, I was cold but too excited to move I had to remind myself to breath, the payoff was life changing. One by one the little kits emerged from the mouth of the den to bask in the early noon sun, all totalled there were 10 babies, two of which were very tiny. For the next three weeks I continued my ritual with the foxes and one day it happened...the spot I had been lying on was pushed into the frozen ground, after I had gotten up to leave and walked but a few steps she came to the spot I had been on and began rolling in it. She did this for several days until one day I returned, got onto the ground as usual when she emerged from her den, in her mouth was a mouse, she approached me, came within a foot of my face with the mouse, I was frozen in that moment, she dropped the mouse in front of my face, flicked it toward me with her nose, and let out a tiny purr, she turned and went back to her den.........the story continues from there, this was just the beginning.

nicely done

thanks for that, we have thousands here, I guess they are gathering for the fall migration