Not so Wild Life

I am not a birder by nature but I like the little fellows. Generally my view of small birds is that of cat food . There may be thousands of species but those I can identify are of the Corvid familey, crows, ravens, jays, magpies and other smart cocky birds. The birds in this case are Whiskey Jacks, sometimes known as Grey Jays officially Perisoreus canadensis. The Whiskey Jack is close to the size of a robin, but a lot smarter and I would say cuter.



A pair of Whiskey Jacks has been hanging around the shop where I work. That is not my fault or at least it did not start that way. I did not start feeding them, but in the last few weeks I have taken part in the act. It started when I saw one eating out of someone's hand how could I not join in on the fun. It should pointed out that the shop where I am working is on the other side of the property from the main camp, so I pack a snack for the morning or afternoon brakes so I am there with food regularly.

I started with just leaving cookie crumbs on core boxes, but moved on to playing with the birds. I have in the last week or two gotten them to eat off my hand, land on my out stretched arm and even eat off my shoulder. I thought how cute and playful these birds are, I was wrong. I was not playing with them, they were training me. Now they come out to try to mug me nearly every time I step out side. I look across to the trees where they hide wondering when they will come out, these critters are nearly as dangerous as ducks.


Whiskey Jacks are not the only animal I have to deal with, there is also a squirrel hanging about the shop. The squirrel is more of a irritation then the birds. Though the Whiskey Jacks have enough nerve to enter the shops they do not make a habit of it. The squirrel on the other hand has made that space his home. It too has been fed by the others working in that shop and has been feed since some time during the summer. The little rodent is down right fat.

The squirrel was not an issue untill it had found our garbage, the kleenex box and most importantly my food. It searched one for food the other was apparently used as bedding material, it crossed a line when ate my food.
I can not complain about is steeling Kleenex, that is a cool thing to see, this little fuzzy animal standing up against the box and pulling out the paper with its little clawed mini hands andthen it stuffing it in its mouth.

The tree rat became trouble when it started to try to eat my snacks when they were still wrapped with me in the room at the same time, that was a little too much. So I started a program to drive it off. I started with just running up to it and trying to scare it, that would but did not stick. After a while I moved on to ballistic disipline. That is I started throwing small stones at it. This is not as bad as it sounds since my aim is so bad as to make a storm trooper look like a sniper and they were small rocks.


That was how it should have stayed, but I am any thing but consistent. I was out side and I saw the tree rat enter my shop, it sat there right in the entrance way. I grabbed a stone half the size of my fist, I aimed for a spot next to it with the goal of scaring the shit out of it. I missed, that is I missed hitting the spot next to it and hit the animal instead. The poor thing was propelled backwards 2.5m with the rock resting on its belly, it then got up and ran out of the shop. It is still around but it has been less open in its doing since then. It remembers me and knows better.