Indoor Blip: Out of Jay-l

Emerging more tentatively in large.

A juvenile jay found its way into the chimney behind my bed yesterday afternoon, and was not at all happy about it; it couldn't ascend out, and I couldn't get it out yesterday, so ended up spending four hours this morning crouching by the open flue with towels... Once I'd opened the damper, it approached the opening (/the light) but then it edged to and fro and squawked incessantly. I didn't dare leave as it seemed to be getting closer, but then I worried that it was too big to squeeze through the gap, or too neophobic to dare to emerge into such an unfamiliar environment.
Patience paid off (sunk-cost fallacy kept me uncomfortably in place, missing plans and appointments) and it finally emerged very suddenly ("Suddenly" was my alternative...) and I caught it in a towel.

It was amazing to see it up close; it didn't struggle once I wrapped it with its wings closed, although it managed to wriggle its head out, and it bristled its head feathers as it gasped and fluttered its eyes. It flew from my hands as soon as I loosened my grip in the garden, so I think it was unharmed by its experience even if its plumage was rather ruffled and ragged.

All it left me was this one semiplume feather; I'd hoped for one of its characteristic blue-barred coverts...

Others here (or right from Soft on hard).