Two Jays in the Garden

[jaelen]

The jays I posted about last week, (wondering if it were possible to determine gender) have become pretty regular visitors... usually individually, but today they came together and I was finally able to get a photo of both of them in one shot.

It's not a great photo- my camera doesn't cope very well with cloudy days, but never mind... I love seeing them, and try to put out things I know they will like. First it was old manky acorns retrieved from the woods nearby, (those went down a treat in two days... I'm sad to say I had to find someone selling more on eBay. BF doesn't know.)

Since then I've tried peanuts in the shell, (roasted ones preferred, ta very much) and hazelnuts in the shell are favoured over the acorns, (thank goodness! eBay acorns don't come cheap. )

I love watching them- they'll land on the table and actually stand and mull over which to take... this morning one jay picked up a peanut, thought about it, put it back down and looked over everything again before choosing a hazelnut instead before flying off with it.

After carrying off just about all I'd put out for them this morning, they both had a mooch around the garden as though checking everything out- one even sat in the window box of our summerhouse for a bit, (looking for a new hiding place for all those nuts, maybe?)

I'm hoping they're considering nesting here... that would be great. Don't know if we've any suitable trees- would they ever use a nesting box, if it were large enough?

Anyway, bit of a rambling post... just thought I'd share. They make me smile, and I wanted to pass it on.

[Tringa]

Good post, Jaelen and pretty good photos too considering the day and that Jays are very wary.

The ones that visit our garden devour all the peanuts very quickly. They seem to be able to spot peanuts very easily or possibly they spot an old bloke putting something on his shed roof.

Never thought of using acorns - doh! - I would have them by the bucketful around here, but perhaps the peanuts provide a bit of variety.

Always a great bird to see.

Dave

[~T~]

Lovely birds. Soemthing we just don't get round my way

[Elizabeth B]

We used to get one or two jays quite regularly, but haven't seen any for some while - and I have a big box full of acorns in the garage! There are two oak trees in a neighbour's garden, that hang right over ours, and we filled a wheelie bin with acorns last year!!! A few years ago we had a family group on the lawn - 4 juveniles and two adults. When I entered a count of 6 on the BTO Garden BirdWatch site, this number was queried!!!

NB jaelen I hope the roasted peanuts you are offering are not salted, as salt is not good for birds.

[jaelen]

How wonderful to have the whole family visit like that!

I'm very careful about the nuts, and always make sure they're not salted... I get the economy monkey nuts from Tescos, so they'd never waste salt on those.

Dave, I've found that when given a choice they'll take the peanuts first- I think they leave the acorns until there's nothing else, and then they carry those away to hide, (maybe being buried softens them up.

[Tringa]

Interesting observation about the Jays taking the peanuts first. It could be, as you say, that the acorns are for later.

We use peanuts simply because we have them. When sunflower hearts are available in other feeders the peanut feeder gets ignored, so the nuts are used for jays, magpies, the odd carrion crow, squirrels and the foxes.

Dave

[Kayleigh]

Great thread and great shots I love these birds but they never come in the garden I rarely see them out and about either they are so shy.

Have you thought about planting a hazel nut tree the twisted ones are quite ornamental I planted one for the look of it I didn't know it would produce nuts very nice they are too.

[auryoningu]

Have you thought about planting a hazel nut tree the twisted ones are quite ornamental I planted one for the look of it I didn't know it would produce nuts very nice they are too.

that seems good !

[kev2]

That's brilliant news, and wonderful pictures too. I still remember how thrilled I was when I first had Jays visiting the garden.

[Elizabeth B]

I've found one of the photos (taken in 2009) - two of the juveniles wouldn't co-operate, they were exploring a short distance away.