amusing jay behaviour

[caroleann]

We have had a family of jays visit for the last two years during the spring and early summer. This year they have also visited in the winter months. We think that there is probably three of them although we have only seen two in the garden at one time. One of the jays visited recently and took some monkey nuts we had placed in a hanging basket. He then proceeded to hide some of them - one in a crevice in a concrete fence post, two or three in a tree, one under a neighbour's shed roof and one in our other neighbour's garden which he then covered with a leaf. He then flew off with one. He has since returned and taken the monkey nut out of the fence post, inspected it and then put it back in the same place. I was wondering if anyone else has witnessed this sort of behaviour in their garden. A great tit often comes into the garden after the Jay has deposited the peanuts in the tree and removes them to eat himself.

[Dogghound]

This is very common jay behaviour. They cache food like this incase they come across periods of very hard weather where food is hard to come by. A great bird to have in your garden.