Lessons in survival from a one-legged Jay

I see him quite often. The handicapped Blue Jay that I call “Hobble.” We first met in the Old Burying Ground, when I noticed that he had trouble balancing when he flew in for a landing.

Soon, I started seeing him at the bird feeder in my yard, then in trees around the neighborhood, even a block away. It’s not often you get to recognize an individual blue jay and keep tabs on him.

It’s not that Hobble is one-legged. To be precise, he has two legs, but only one is functional. The right leg is mangled, so that when he’s at rest, it hangs useless under him.

Although he has no trouble flying from place to place, he’s had to compensate for the injury to one leg, learning to adapt his movements and his behavior patterns so he can cope with keeping his balance.

Unable to keep up with others, he lives a solitary existence. But he’s proved to be a survivor, managing to stick around for at least two years, as documented by my photographs.

Hobble has tenacity. This highly adaptive bird endures even the worst weather extremes. There have been some nasty weeks of winter, a couple of hurricanes, and record heat during the past couple of summers.

I’m impressed by the intelligence of this guy, by his resourcefulness and ingenuity. By his ability to learn. Basically, he just goes with the flow, ready to seize opportunities that present themselves each day.

Here are the last photographs I took of Hobble before he disappeared …

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A word of advice:  When you’re sitting high up and out on a limb, don’t wobble.

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