Return of the Jay

Lovely photo of the Jay. Don't see many of them about these days. They are usually around on the edges of woods. Great little characters.

Now that's a most excellent capture!!

Yippee!

Amazing colouring he has.

Isn't it just lovely to see?

Beautiful photo Sticki

Wonderful pic Stickie...:>)

its clearly a stuffed Jay ST, they are impossible to photograph that clearly. I bet your local museum is scratching their heads looking at an empty display case right now !! ( sniggers ;-)

What a fabulous picture Sticki!!

many thanks everyone! you are very kind, especially bampy ~ what do you mean museum??? i think i am an exhibit in one of those these days!!!

the secret seemed to be peanuts, on a flat dish, ~ he came back loads of times so i spent most of the morning trying to get a photo!

Is it related to the one that wound us up here at the cottage? by being so elusive!

first cousin i think lulu!!??

Beautiful photo Sticki, Lucky you , we've never had one in our garden !

Great! We see loads of Jays flying around here, but none as close as this!

Thanks Amy, there is a small oak wood behind our house and I think that's where they like living, also the Lickey hills are only a couple of miles away and there are several living there.
Thanks Nariz, I think he was around 4 to 5 foot from the kitchen door where I was taking the photo from!

smashing pic!

Lovely photo, Sticki - I think Jays are so attractive. I see one very rarely. We used to see them quite often when I was a child in Surrey.

thanks fran and melchi, i have to say they look more beautiful than they sound:

http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/j/jay/index.aspx

magpies and jays seem to argue and scream at each other!

Lovely picture - our house is called 'Jay's Nest!'

:-)

That's a lovely name wildrose, do you get jays too? Or do you have the initial J in your name?!

great picture sticki , try this , get a log or piece of timber ,drill in holes the size of peanuts about half inch deep ,then place the peanuts in them ,my woodpeckers & jays love rooting them out ,it also annoys the squirrels too ha ha it keeps the birds in the garden longer ,other than picking up the peanuts & flying off with them cheers pete

Oh thanks Pete, that sounds like a lot of fun.

I wondered if the jay preferred a stable base to feed on? So I would have to work out a way of making the log stable on the feeding station/pole?

great idea, Pete!

do you have any pics, or a how-to blog? sure that'd go down very well indeed.

lol do we have a GoY star for bright ideas?

Sticki - a family who lived here in the 60's all had the initial 'J' as a Christian name!

Ah that explains it! very clever name!

i could technically call this house 'The Pod' as in two Ps in a
pod but we're not exactly alike so maybe not!!

lol "I-Pod" - cos "I" live there?

:-)) nice one fran!

What a lovely picture - wish we had them in our garden! We have 2 magpies (one with a broken leg & hops about) coming to the garden at the moment & a Great spotted Woodpecker, besides the 'run of the mill' lot!!!

thanks shirl, i would love to see a woodpecker here, there is one not far away but he never comes in the garden. i have just seen a tree full of wax wings though ~ 15 or 20 of them about 6 miles from here!

I'm so jealous, never had one in my garden, but there is at least one pair where I walk the dogs. The noise they make is amazingly loud for such shy creatures. Waxwings too eh?.....I've never seen one except in books:-)

terrible noise, i agree BA! and magpies arent much better, added to that there are the squirrels who grumble away chattering crossly if something upsets them!

Yes waxwings ~ i had only seen them in books and karensusans photos last year!

I must find out more about Jays as I heard on the radio a while back that they were persecuted almost to extinction and I'd like to know why:-)

perhaps someone didnt like their raucous cries?

the magpies and the crows seem to threaten them a bit and if the squirrel is in the garden he will chase the jay off the bird table too!

I'm sure I read somewhere that at one time they used to be hunted for those lovely blue feathers to use as decoration on ladies' hats!! I wouldn't think they do that now though - I wonder if there is another reason!?

Amazingly there has been a pair in the garden this morning [jays, not ladies hats!!!] I counted as one of them ate 20 peanuts!!!!

Maybe they were persecuted by peanut farmers?:-) Shirl, that could be the answer. I know exotic birds such as birds of paradise were killed for their plumage and that trade has now stopped thankfully:-)

persecuted by squirrels here!

My sister is very excited to have seen waxwings in the garden for the first time, also in the car park at work. I don't think I've ever seen them, but she lives and works not far away, so here's hoping!

waxwings in lancashire and worcestershire ~ there must be more of them than i realised!

i saw the twitchers watching them again today but unfortunately was with husband who didnt want to stop for photos ~ might try tomorrow to go and get a photo myself if they are still there ~ i need to get onto twitcher news i think!!

Ooooh, look forward to seeing a pic:-)

Lovely shot.

I saw my first Jay in ages the other day!

Thanks meanie, perhaps they are getting bolder?

Sorry BA haven't managed a photo :-(

A great picture Sticki love his expression;0)

thanks PP, he looks quite studious doesnt he or perhaps he is a master chef judge and doesnt approve of the food!??

Lol He certainly is examing your offer cautiously lol

:-)

Is this a bluejay? (You refer to it as a 'jay'.) It looks much different from what I'm used to seeing :)

We just call them 'jays' floral head, I don't think we have blue jays?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Jay

Thanks Fran!

Thanks Fran, going to look them up now!

we also call our bluejays 'jays' for short

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurasian_Jay

now this ^ looks more like the bird in your picture

both the links Fran posted are the same bird that I see here!

that is a fantastic photo because Jays are so shy

ah yes floralhead the one in your link looks the same!

thanks summerbreeze, he/she is shy but the peanuts are quite an attraction i think, the bird table is approximately 5 feet from the back door, so i just take photos through the glass, he seems to visit quite regularly

they startle quite easily it seems. I did see a video on youtube of a man who had them eating from his had though! the bird would fly up to him & snatch peanuts out of his hand, blink & you'd miss him for sure.

I cant imagine me being about to do that FH! but how amazing! yes this one startles very easily ~ movement, change of light etc!

me either, I wouldn't have the patience for it!
yes, I have to sneak up on my bluejays :)

Cracking shot Sticki...well done...:)

Those blue jays are beautiful floral head

Thanks BB, he/she visits nearly every day, wish I had a fast enough camera to get a shot as he lands, with his wings out!

could you take a movie of it, then pick out the best frame-s?

I have tried to take a video Fran, but sorry I don't know how to do the freeze frame thing, also the zoom on the video setting is nowhere near as good as on photo setting.

Windows Movie Maker can take stills from a video clip, once you've decided which still to use! There are possibly much better alternatives, but it does come free with Windows.

I keep forgetting I have video on my camera - at Brighton I was spinning round trying to capture the seagulls, it never occurred to me to take a vid and split it later. sigh.

oh, thanks fran, didnt know that!

mine's throwing a sulk at the moment: I've got couple of gb space, but it claims it doesn't have room to finish a vid clip of 300 mb. grr.

I found a site that listed free video editors: if i can find it again I'll put the link up.

thanks fran

can't find the exact link that I had before, but did a search and this link offers comarisons, one of which might suit

http://www.desktop-video-guide.com/top-5-free-video-editing-software-review.html

oh, ok, thanks again! will have a look at that

lol when you find the best, you can tell me - it'll probably be ages before I get round to it myself!

fantastic - beautiful birds - had our first in garden last week but chased off by magpie. Great picture

the magpies appear here too paul, and Im sure when they do appear the jay disappears! He/she also disappears when a squirrel appears!
thank you!