In the latest issue of Audubon magazine, Les Line gives that quintessential “junk” bird, the Blue Jay, some much-needed love. I’ve always thought that the bird would receive so much more attention if it were less common. As it is, this common bird commonly receives nothing but disparaging comments. “Oh, it’s just a jay.” “What a slow day–nothing but blue jays today!”
A sad commentary, perhaps, on how the human appetite for the unusual, the rare, the novel, leads us to overlook the beauties of the everyday, the ordinary, the plain. But in fact, the blue jay is anything but plain, as anyone who looks with non-jaded eyes can see. Funny, though: as I comb through my photos, I have only three of Blue Jay, Cyanocitta cristata, and none of them are of good enough quality to show why this bird deserves a second, a third, an nth, look. I smell a project…