A New (sort of) Adventure

My first bird of 2014? A Blue Jay calling outside the window. Seems fitting, since I've been studying corvids all year.

"Don't you mean a Scrub-jay, Nora? You're on Santa Cruz Island!"

No, I don't. I mean a Blue Jay, Cyanocitta cristata.

"Wait, where are you?"

Asheville, North Carolina!

Yes, that's right, I've moved away from my beloved islands and back to the mountains of western North Carolina for a year to finish my undergraduate degree at Warren Wilson College, where I left two years ago to pursue field work and self-discovery. It's exciting and at times frustrating (I'd forgotten how annoying it is to deal with college administrative b.s.), but I'm looking forward to making the most out of my 12-months in this incredible region.

More to come soon once I am more settled and have some time to get some good photos of winter birds in these beautiful wispy, leafless forests. I used to think that leafless felt lifeless, but now it just feels like a latent promise of rejuvenation, of rebirth. I'm happy to be back.

A Blue Jay scrounging for fallen seeds below a feeder at my friend Madalyn's farm in Prospect Hill, NC.