postaldeliveries

Jay by the bird table

The wretched gout has me struggling to even limp around at the moment – so I haven’t walked The Dog or taken any pictures for these last two weeks. Jackie has been on Dog Walking duty, so I thought it would be only fair to use one of her pictures. As the bird table and feeders fall within her area of responsibility, she most often takes photos of the birds that visit there. The picture I chose is a recent photo of one of the two Jays we see occasionally in the garden.

They are a member of the crow family and they have the fine singing voice common to Corvus – a penetrating, raucous screech. Like Piglet and unlike Tigger, Jays like acorns best. They do share the intelligence of their fellow crows and will often spy on squirrels as they bury their winter cache, and then remember where to come to dig them up, for themselves, at a later date.

This may just be what this guy was doing. The low wall is the front of the bank that holds our oak trees in check and stops them from stomping all over the garden. The soil, just there, is soft deep leaf mould, in the autumn the acorns are scattered liberally in this area.

I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he/she isn’t doing a little pre-planned pilfering.