Part of my blue jay family

These two noisy birds can hardly wait until I get outside in the morning to put out the seeds. I hear them when I wake up, calling impatiently.

"The tray is empty - where's our breakfast!"

There are about six in this family - four new ones this year and mum and dad who still feed the laggards who flutter their wings helplessly and call with the softest whiny squeal instead of the raucous "thief thief" that the adults use to let the world know something is happening.

It's too early to put out the suet feeders, but you can bet they'll be first at them when I do.

In this photo taken under the weeping birch - you can see the leaves drooping from it sweeping the ground - one bird looks on while the other cracks a seed. The plate full of seeds is on the other side of the log. It's comical to watch them. For a short while I put a few seeds on a window sill - but two blue jays crash landed, one nearly missing the sill completely and once Eleia - one of my cats - made a flying leap to get at the purple finch that had discovered the cache. So no more...

But these colourful birds are welcome around here. They warn the mourning doves of an approaching hawk - a sharp-shinned and a Cooper's hawk often buzz the back yard - and they are usually pretty busy, flying about, flinging seeds out of feeders then jumping down to select only the best. They are the comedians of the bird world in my opinion and always brighten my day no matter what the weather or my mood.