Your day's wildlife
- Thread starter Flick of the Elbow
- Start date
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- Tags
- wildlife
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Dave 123
Legendary Member
- Location
- Cambridgeshire alps
They’re still seen as pests in some quarters. Thankfully it’s illegal to knowingly kill them.
As well as their impressive plumage I love their raucous squawk. It makes me smile.
Bristolian
Senior Member
- Location
- Bristol, UK
We used to get a pair of Jays in our garden almost every day but they've been missing this year. This was the first Jay I've seen in 2024 and he was flying in and out of the area for most of the day and feeding off the nuts and seeds dropped by smaller birds using the feeders.
OP
OP
Flick of the Elbow
less than
- Location
- West Edinburgh
Watching the red squirrels last week at RSPB Loch Leven it was noticeable that the jays were always in attendance, keeping an eye on where the squirrels were stashing the nuts.
Gillstay
Veteran
I think that's the old chestnut of if you call it a pest or vermin it legitimises your killing it. I can see no way they would be a pest unless you also collect acorns.
Its much like parking with your engine running on double yellows.
Dave 123
Legendary Member
- Location
- Cambridgeshire alps
Do Jays do that? I knew they were clever, but driving is impressive.
Gillstay
Veteran
Collecting a lot of acorns and remembering where you left them is harder.
Dave 123
Legendary Member
- Location
- Cambridgeshire alps
I’d hardly got in the door when this lot arrived!
Dave 123
Legendary Member
- Location
- Cambridgeshire alps
Our window feeder is normally the domain of Blue and Great Tits. The Sparrow tribe are quick learners!
Dave 123
Legendary Member
- Location
- Cambridgeshire alps
Here’s a female Sparrow trying to suss out what to do….
Windle
Über Member
- Location
- Burnthouses
Not sure what variety of sparrow these are, I've not seen any like that before.
Saluki
World class procrastinator
- Location
- ...Norwich over the water.
Great shots.
How do you encourage the birds to come to the feeders. I have my feeders out, not close to the house so I don’t freak out the birds by being in the kitchen or something. I have different feeders with different feeds in like the balls, suet block, seed, sunflower hearts and peanuts. All in different feeders around the garden area, but the birds are sadly absent. I live in a village, not a city.
It’s a bit disappointing that I have been here since the end of Jan and food has been out since early summer. I clean the feeders and replace the food regularly. I am not offering mouldy or old seeds.
Dave 123
Legendary Member
- Location
- Cambridgeshire alps
@Saluki
The window feeder has been there since last February. I tend to put just peanuts in it and not anywhere else (others in this house don’t, they put bog standard seed in)
So if the birds want the high value food they have to earn it.
We seem to be a little bit low on blue and great tit numbers at present.
4 miles away in my mother in law’s garden there were swarms of blue tits on Thursday afternoon. Some years she doesn’t see many.
The window feeder has been there since last February. I tend to put just peanuts in it and not anywhere else (others in this house don’t, they put bog standard seed in)
So if the birds want the high value food they have to earn it.
We seem to be a little bit low on blue and great tit numbers at present.
4 miles away in my mother in law’s garden there were swarms of blue tits on Thursday afternoon. Some years she doesn’t see many.
Gillstay
Veteran
Let your garden become a bit more wild and have boxes and longer grass.
Its more about creating your own nature reserve. We went from 7 birds to 20 species last time we did a count, but took 3 yrs.
