The jays discovered my house a couple of weeks ago. An unfamiliar and raucous birdcall got my attention, and I saw a couple flitting around, those feisty daring ninjas of nature, willing to steal food out of your hand if you're not looking. A few days after their first appearance, one of them parked on the fence outside my open bedroom window, around 6:30am, and called once or twice. This was clearly unacceptable, and wishing to train the birds properly, from the comfort of my bed I hissed loudly and was rewarded by a flapping of wings. They seem to have gotten the message.

The other day I saw a jay land on the front walk and drop a couple almond-shaped items of food, and put one in its mouth and start looking around. I wanted to know if it too was poaching from the almond tree over the driveway. I started to walk towards it, and it dropped its food and flew up into a tree, scrawking at me. As I approached the food, it flew back down to the ground near me. It was almost ready to fight me for it. I stopped and got in my ready aikido position--it may or may not be optimal for fighting jay, but I can move from it--and leaned down toward the food, which turned out to be some kind of unblossomed flowers. Perhaps realizing I was a little bigger, the jay flew back to the tree with some squawks of disapproval, before I put the flowers down and backed away.