Welcome back to the Sunday Edition. This time of social distancing has meant my son and I are spending a lot of time outside exploring areas and looking for birds. We are excited about the imminent arrival of our southern guests and while we wait patiently we have had some incredible encounters with our local residents.
A couple of weeks ago we were out exploring a trail where we found the remains of a hare, a grouse, a ptarmigan and a partial caribou carcass. It looked like it had been dumped there by a hunter. We were disappointed to find the fresh caribou carcass with plenty of meat left on it. However, it was not going to waste. The Canada Jays were devouring it! I didn’t realize that jays were such happy little carnivores!
There was a pair of them chirping and chortling away at the rib cage happily stripping off strings of meat. They were so excited about their find that they weren’t even intimidated by my approach for a few photos! When I returned home I was curious if it was common for birds (other than raptors) to eat meat and I was surprised to find that many small birds will eat meat if the opportunity presents itself. So those cute and fluffy little birds who grace our trees and sing so sweetly are happy to scavenge flesh from corpses and devour it! It sure gave me a whole new perspective on our feathered friends!