Fledglings and Flowering May

Yesterday I heard those familiar noises that young jays make when they are learning to fly. And I went out and saw in the back garden, a short-tailed bright blue-winged scrub jay hop-hop-hopping and squeaking to beat the band. Today I went out and actually found him, picked him up and held him close to my cheek. (the olifactory sense is the dullest one on birds. People always have this misnomer that if they touch a baby that the parents will not come back to it, because it smells of humans. Actually, they can't smell the human-ness at all.) It felt so delish to nuzzle his body up against me and listen to his beating heart and small chirps. I don't know if the parents are encouraging him to "get the hell out" of the nest and don't come back! or what. Sometimes a bluejay hangs about our garden eating bugs for longer than they need to, or maybe they are doing me a service and I love everything about them but that ugly ungainly squawck! I have several bird baths, one for water and one for seed, so I put him in the seed one and let him eat a bit, though I think they prefer things like potato bugs and then I picked him up again and put him in the water bath and he loved it, washing under his wings and flicking the droplets over his head, it was so very funny to watch.