Guest Blog Post by Bruce: Planting Dog Food Trees

Frogpond is a lovely place in the morning.  I love the light and I love to listen to the birds singing as they get on with their day.

 Les had told me that the apples were blooming, so on this particular Friday, I was in the orchard with the 300 mm lens.

One of my photography mentors, John H. Wright, advises one to turn around when shooting as there may be something of interest behind that you would otherwise miss.  Turning around at the orchard gate, I was rewarded by the sight of a local Scrub Jay sitting on the fence.

Yes, that's dog food in his beak.  Two chunks in fact.  Suddenly it became clear why I was going through so much dog food: not only was I feeding the dogs, but also every jay in Calaveras County.

Standing still, I watched as the jay flew into the flowering buck brush.  A few moments later, the jay returned with only one piece of dog food.


 
As I watched, the jay hopped around looking for the best place to hide his ill-gotten gains.  He quickly decided on the perfect spot and after making sure no one was watching him, he buried his prize.

 
The process was soon repeated for the second piece of dog food.









After a quick check to ensure his secret was safe, the jay flew off in the general direction of the dog food dish for the second setting.

  While watching this, I was laughing to myself and thinking I would have to avoid mowing over the dog food trees that were just planted.

Murphy, on the other hand, apparently didn't see the humor in the situation.