Holler Blues~

On By cindy knokeIn Birds, Conservation, HOLLER HAPPENINGS, MY PHOTOGRAPHS, REVERIES

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All Holler critters are ecstatic drought is done!
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California Scrub Jay is normally quite shy.
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But winter drought seed shortages,
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draw him close for Holler hand-outs!
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Giving us an up-close glimpse,
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of happy winter blues!
Cheers to you from The Holler’s joyful jays~

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288 thoughts on “Holler Blues~”

    1. These are typical. I am now confused though about whether or not there is a difference between Western Scrub Jays and California Western Scrub Jays. I will have to google it.

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    1. ‘And my friends have lost their way.
      “We’ll be over soon,” they said.
      Now they’ve lost themselves instead.’
      This happens all the time here. I just assumed they were smoking too much pot! 😉 😉

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  12. We have many Western Scrub Jays and Steller’s Jays in my neck of the woods…I love watching them! Excellent photos, here…happy Friday, my dear friend!
    😎
    <3

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  14. Pingback: Holler Blues~ | O LADO ESCURO DA LUA

    1. We’ve controlled the snails in prior years thank goodness, so they are not too bad now. We live amongst very old orchards, so the bug situation here is like something out of The Hellstrom Chronicles. We get some incredible bugs!

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  26. Beautiful Blue Bird, Cindy. <3
    I once read, happiness has always seemed like a bluebird, and consists of moments. This beauty makes you stop and cherish the moment. <3
    Wishing you a wonderful weekend. xox

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    1. Yes the mythical Bluebird of Happiness! The bluebird is the patron saint of “women who lived outside traditional roles.” My kinda bird! Check out what wiki says about these ancient beliefs:
      “The symbol of a bluebird as the harbinger of happiness is found in many cultures and may date back thousands of years. One of the oldest examples (found on oracle bone inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty, 1766-1122 BC) is from pre-modern China, where a blue bird (qingniao) was the messenger bird of Xi Wangmu, the ‘Queen Mother of the West’ who began life as a fearsome goddess and Immortal. By the Tang Dynasty (618-906 AD) she had evolved into a Daoist fairy queen and the protector/patron of “singing girls, dead women, novices, nuns, adepts and priestesses…women [who] stood outside the roles prescribed for women in the traditional Chinese family”

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      1. Excellent, dear friend. Klausbernd says “thank you, Cindy!” 🙂 KB writes books about symbolism and collects anything interesting and is all smiles … and so are Siri, Selma and myself. We very much like the idea of being women and Fairy Beings totally outside traditional roles. 😊 💃🏼👭✨💫⭐️🌟 💕💕💕

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        1. “We very much like the idea of being women and Fairy Beings totally outside traditional roles.”
          It is a wonderful reframe of how to think about ourselves isn’t it! I love it too. It just feels ‘right’.
          I wonder if Jung is up there somewhere enjoying Klausbernd’s mind. and this discussion! It wouldn’t surprise me.

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      2. Dear Cindy
        I suppose that the bluebird is the patron for women living outside traditional roles has to do with it’s colour. The colour blue symbolises introversion. That’s easy to experience, if you look at a blue surface you have the feeling you are drawn into it. Kandinsky called it “the centripetal power of blue”. And so it doesn’t take wonder that blue is the colour of romanticism – the blue flower of romanticism (going back to Novalis’ fragment “Heinrich von Oftedingen”).
        On the other hand blue is mainstream as well, as most people of the western world have blue as their favourite colour. But this is the polarity you find in every colour. Blue between mainstream and individualism.
        Thank you very much for your information about blue in the Chinese culture.
        Have a happy Sunday
        Klausbernd

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        1. Fascinating about the connection with introversion, and the water metaphor makes perfect sense with it’s enticing nature, doesn’t it. Maybe Narcisiss wasn’t just gazing at himself, but thinking of diving in! Love this idea that blue symbolizes individual escape and thus somehow, happiness. I know you contemplate rivers and this imagery brings forth even more associated symbolism. Blue is also associated with sadness, and with melancholy, soulful music in mainstream culture. Interesting isn’t it? A color that represents such opposites in people’s minds, happiness/sadness, introversion/romanticism, and the possibility of escape.
          This discussion makes me think of grapheme synesthesia. Maybe you and I are lucky enough to have a bit of this.
          You are wonderful to talk with Klausbernd. Thank you!

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          1. Dear Cindy,
            thank you very much, it’s great talking with you, I really appreciate it 🙂
            It’s interesting that all the primary colours show this polarity. Goethe saw this polarity as a basis of nature. And I suppose that makes symbolism like colour symbolism that powerful, as it is multi-dimensional (in contrast to the one-dimensional).
            Anyway this were just some idea on a sunny Monday morning.
            Have a happy week
            Klausbernd

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              1. I suppose to make something interesting it needs a tension/polarity as it reflects the polarity that is basic for life (Nietzsche was emphasising this point). If I remember it right, the Buddhist believe that life is produced by the polarity of the highest and the lowest chakra. If you die this tension is nullified.
                Maybe every basic symbolism like colours reflects the structure of life. It mirrors the human structure – your Yin-Yang-idea.
                Thanks for your inspiring imput 🙂

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                1. Fascinating Klausbernd. Buddha talked about “right action.” And of course there is the polarity within our own psyches, the dialectical tension between the id and superego, the clash between positive and negative self talk, all these diametrically conflicting impulses. It is all such a mystery, fun to ponder, impossible to truly figure out. Maybe death will resolve the mystery, but that is the most ultimate mystery of all!
                  Be well my friend.

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    1. Yay, introducing you to a new bird makes my day! The bluebird is the patron saint of unusual women who occupy non-standard roles according to ancient Chinese beliefs, so of course you respond to her! <3

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            1. Yay! The other thing you will notice is how Zen like the experience becomes. You truly do become fully engrossed in the moment with out effort or meditation.

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    1. Yes, I think around food sources they are, like feeders and picnic grounds. But at The Holler they have oak groves with tons of natural food, so the avoid my feeders, until the drought, brought them closer.

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  33. What a lovely shade of blue this jay is. What a great feeling it must be to capture a very shy species in an image or two.
    Actually it looks a bit like a sparrow in shape.

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  34. As a bird lover, jays are at the top of my list. I never knew one could be shy. I used to live in a quiet area and would leave my kitchen back door open. It never failed. Nearly every day, a blue jay (most likely the same one) brazenly flew into my kitchen and grabbed whatever scraps of fruit were left on my table. My young son and I marveled at this. It was quite thrilling to watch. Great post, Cindy, as always. 💙

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    1. Oh my God! I would so love this! Everyone is telling me their jays aren’t shy and I have seen this in picnic grounds, but at The Holler, they are reticent and elusive. I am guessing it is because they normally have a steady supply of food items in the oak groves.

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    1. Awww, what a lovely comment. Thank you! Birds do definitely seem to sense when people care about them. I think wild animals in general are good at perceiving threat, and hence non-threat. We had a window strike this morning. I sat with the sparrow, waiting to see if he revived. He did slowly. Finally he was up and okay and we just sat together, with him occasionally snoozing, which caused me to close my eyes. When I next looked he had flown away~

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    1. Oh yes! Laughing. Feeders for the seed eaters and the nectar eaters, boxes for the owls, fruit for the fruit eaters and baths so everyone stays clean! 😉 😉

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    1. I love them. We have 600 species of birds in my county, more than anywhere else in the continental US. I got some clicks of a new one yesterday, and have yet to research what it is. Love this, and I know I would love your garden and your birds my friend! <3

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              1. Oh yes! We get all the big guys ☺ It is truly hilarious watching a magpie clinging for dear life to the bird feeder full of nuts intended for the dinky little blue tits! We have a pair of them usually doing battle with the pair of big fat wood pigeons for space on the table 😉 Magpies are serious gannets and generally big bullies! But can’t not fees them anyway when they land pointedly on the bird table when I appear outside….and there’s nothing for them to eat…They are soooo manipulative! lol 😃

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                1. I took a bazillion photos of a some magpies harassing a fox family in central London. I had just flown in from Africa and was looking forward to some tea & civilization. Ha! It was safari time in central London. I was glued to my hotel window that would only open about four inches, photographing down into the Duke of Bedford’s walled garden for hours and a couple days watching the drama. The parents caught a magpie. The kits were practising stalking the magpies, and the magpies gave them holy hell for days! It was wonderful. I never did get the tea, but I was fully entertained.

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          3. And here’s a video ☺ Apparently we have blue Jays too but can’t say I’ve ever seen one. Seems the typical British Jay is also known as the Eurasian_Jay. That was news to me as well!

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            1. He’s gorgeous! And they mob hawks! How brilliant of them. They seem like a cross between north american woodpeckers (who hide acorns like your jays) and Stellar Jays with the stripes. I would love to see and photograph them! Thanks for the photos and videos. What fun~

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  50. Cindy, your photos of birds are so beautiful and always my favorite! Today, in snowy NY, a lovely female cardinal was seeking shelter near our windowsill. I wanted to get a photo but I would have disturbed her by lifting the blinds.

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    1. I have seen one cardinal in my entire life, so I would very much love to see yours, even better with the snow, for the photo of course, not for you, or the cardinal! <3

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