This is Birdnote.

Skateboarder and birder Dave Moll remembers one of the first times his two passions intersected.

He was practicing this terrifying trick he called the stump jump, using this big tree stump.

An ollie over a grass gap onto a stump.

And after the stump, there was about a nine-foot drop over a fence.

So I had to get, like, just the right amount of speed.

And it was scary to think if I didn't make the first jump onto the stump

and if I just fell, like, face first down.

That was, like, the biggest fear.

While I was preparing to try the trick,

Stellarist Js were just going off flying all around the area.

And at one point I thought I heard a red-tailed hawk.

And I looked around, I was like, I don't see it anywhere.

And I looked up on a branch, like, high up and a cedar.

And it was totally the Stellar's J mimicking a red-tailed hawk.

These Stellars Js were like pretending to be something they were not, kind of tricking the world.

So it got me in this mindset that I could be something I was not.

With that newfound confidence, Dave got his running start,

and nailed the trick.

From that point on, every time I see Stellars Jays,

I'm reminded of one of the scariest and happiest moments of my skateboard career so far.

So thanks, Stellars, Jays.

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