The intelligence of birds is much debated, except in my home where our children take delight in hearing I was once beaten at tic-tac-toe by a chicken in Monterey.

I lived for a while in Colorado southwest of Durango in a cabin with an upstairs loft.

One of my favorite spring activities was spreading fresh popcorn in the forest for the Blue Jays.

Climbing into the loft I would watch these intelligent birds through a small window.

It was easy to identify the birds by their personalities, which I later learned corresponded with humans.

There were mission specialists who ate what they needed and moved on.

Some were obsessed by greed and never ate. They just repeatedly tried to pick up five pieces with beaks that could only hold four.

There were also hoarders who didn’t eat. They quickly grabbed what they could fly off with to a secret cache then hid their prize under leaves and pine needles.

When the hoarders left for more, thieves watching from the trees would swoop in, eat the cache and fly back to the trees till the hoarders returned.

That group was the most fun to watch by far.

You can learn a lot about life watching Blue Jays from a window in a cabin loft.