Steller's jay chicks start life on an RV

Yosemite Lakes Thousand Trail campground garnered some national attention this spring thanks to a pair of Steller's jays who built their nest on the back of a visitor's RV.

Turns out the RV was owned by Marcedes and John Condon, who are traveling the country and recording their adventures on a You Tube channel.

The birds became a sensation.

They deposited four eggs in the nest and at the end of May the first babies hatched.

The Condons, who are from Miami, sent photos of the featherless baby birds with skin so thin you can see inside their spines and wings. One photo showed a hatchling in the nest with three eggs, blue and speckled with dark dots. The next photo showed two pink-skinned hatchlings together in the nest, leaning against each other next to two remaining eggs.

Mercedes Condon captioned a short video they posted online, “It's official . . . at approximately 4:27PM PST, on 5/28/19, weight unknown, John & I became.... Grandparents? Aunties & Uncles? God Parents? to Sand & Piper's oldest. But we have one problem. The baby needs a name. Any ideas?”

The second hatchling arrived before the next day, and the Condons posted a photo captioned, “And then there were Two!” Then the third and by the first week of June the fourth still had not hatched.

A video they've posted shows the adult birds feeding the hatchlings, who sit side-by-side with their beaks upturned and wide open.

The Condons have been staying at Yosemite Lakes Thousand Trails campground, off Highway 120 and east of the South Fork Tuolumne

River bridge by Rainbow Pool.

The human couple appealed to the owners of the camp to extend their

stay until the young birds have learned to fly. The campground's management said they could.

The Condons said the jays started building their nest in early May and a week later they had four eggs. They began making video and photos of the birds making their nest. They had more than 17,000 subscribers earlier this month and they had 28,202 subscribers as of Wednesday afternoon.

“It was so exciting to see mommy and daddy cooperating to build this nest,” Mercedes Condon said earlier this month. “It came at the perfect time when we were totally exhausted.”

Steller's jays are not endangered, the Condons initially feared that if they moved the jays' nest and eggs they could be in violation of the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, which protects many species of birds, including Steller's jays.

“There was a $15,000 fine and up to six months jail time if we try to move the nest now that there's eggs in it or drive away with the nest on our rig,” John Condon said.

“Not that we would drive away with a birds' nest with eggs on our RV, that's a horrible, cruel thing to do,” Mercedes Condon said.

Miguel Ortiz, the general manager at Yosemite Lakes Thousand Trails, said, “We are in nature and we are in the birds' way. We have birds, we have bears. We affect their way of life. We want to do the right thing here.”

Newborn Steller jays are hatching in a nest their parents built on a ladder on the back of an RV at Yosemite Lakes Thousand Trails campground. The RVers, Mercedes and John Condon hope they won’t have to leave until the young birds have learned to fly.

This cropped still image shows a Steller’s jay bringing twigs to build a nest on an RV belonging to vacationers Mercedes and John Condon of Miami. The Condons are staying at Yosemite Lakes Thousand Trails campground off Highway 120.

Two Steller’s jays have built a nest on ladders on the back of an RV at Yosemite Lakes Thousand Trails campground. The RVers, Mercedes and John Condon, don’t want to leave or move now, until the jays’ eggs have hatched and the young birds have learned to fly.