Such drama in the back yard! I had to take down all the feeders after the back yard bear kept crashing the place, but finally relented, and when I put everything back up, we were soon overrun with wildlife. I was delighted to see a Steller's jay after a very long absence - you hear them before they see them, as they screech and screech, then flap down and bob around for seeds. While they're among my favorite birds, they aren't very bright and can't seem to navigate to get up to the feeders, though they flap around looking ungainly while they attempt to hook on somewhere. In this video I happened to be outside with the camera when a small war broke out. The jay was screeching, and a squirrel was snarling back at him. It went back and forth for a while, and must have been a territorial thing because the jay finally flew over to the tree where the squirrel was hunching and flapping its tail and swearing in squirrel. It ended in a draw in which the jay took off, but soon reappeared when the squirrel frisked off to another tree.
