Autumn Jays
Autumn Jays, although Jays are resident with us throughout the year for most of that time they remain out of sight in dense conifer plantations, their presence is only betrayed by an odd glimpse or when one hears their screeching calls. Only in the early autumn do Jays become at all visible. Then they on a relentless quest to gather and store acorns for winter. From early September noisy family groups forage the crowns of the oaks for ripening acorns. With several stored in their crop and another held in the bill they fly back to the depths of the conifer forest to secrete their booty. In years when there is a heavy acorn mast the Jays will also gather fallen acorns on the ground. Not this year however the acorns are few and the Jays have to compete with wild boar for those that reach the ground.
Photographing our local Jays is somewhat problematic. They are very shy and hardly ever come to garden feeders. On occasion I managed to entice a couple of birds down to a mix of peanuts and acorns. They just could not resist picking up a few acorns before departing. Another time a pair with recently fledged young found a stash of peanuts that I’d put out as bait for Pine Martens. Getting pictures of them foraging naturally up in the crowns of the oaks was a problem that resolved itself with little effort on my part. This year with few local trees bearing acorns a couple of birds started occasionally visiting an oak in the garden. They were making several visits over a relatively short space of time around mid-day. Just enough to get set up, point my camera out of a window and hope that the birds would land in view on the near side of the tree.
