Gray Jay

Thanks to a blog post I found online posted by Bryan Pfeiffer I was able to identify my bird more easily. Bryan’s blog gives a tremendous description to this little piece of paradise in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont.

My son (Sebastian) and I stumbled upon this trail while I was taking my customary, round-about-way to get home to southern NH from the Dixville Notch area. For me, that meant a ride over to Island Pond, VT and down through Burke, VT and then home of course. The trail we found is part of Moose Bog in the Wenlock Wildlife Management Area.

Well, anyways, along the way Sebastian and I saw this trailhead tucked back from the road. We stopped and decided to walk the trail. It was fantastic. The trial is cut narrow and runs fairly level through some dense forest. We noticed several fresh samples of coyote scat. I have pictures of that too, but I thought the Gray Jay was more appealing. We noticed coyote tracks, fox tracks, moose tracks, and even some tracks left by horseshoes. Before we got the far end of the trail we decided to get our feet wet and headed for the bog and a peaceful current that made almost no sound. We tracked through some of the softest, spongy moss I have ever seen or felt. We arrived at the water’s edge and stood on a dead stump. Woodpecker’s had drilled too many holes to count in this stump. For a few moments we just watched the water flow, there were a pair of ducks swimming, and we listened to absolutely nothing. It was tremendous.

As we made our way back along the trail, headed out to the road, we both had that feeling you get when you’re being watched. It was a bit eerie, but not for long. There was a pair of Gray Jays following us. These two birds would flutter to a spot high above our heads and watch. Then as we would notice, they would vanish into the heavy cover, only to reappear above us again a moment later. They continued this charade for a couple hundred yards. I was fortunate enough to turn, shoot, and capture this bird with my camera. They were having fun toying with us and they disappeared just as quickly as they had appeared.

We enjoyed the quick and easy hike through this quiet sanctuary. We were both happy we had come across this spot, and even more delighted that we stopped to have a look. I will definitely be back to check out all there is to check out. I won’t forget the first encounter there though, when the Gray Jays came along for part of the hike.