Sunday 22 November 2009

Nuts For Jays





The weather this last week or so has been terrible with heavy rain on most days and culminating in devastating floods in Cumbria. These conditions were not conducive to getting out and about with the camera. I was at home most of the time but all was not lost !! For many weeks now I have been putting lots of feed out for the garden birds. They have been coming in good numbers to feed on the bird seed and peanuts.
I have been visited on a daily basis by a pair of jays that have cost me a small fortune in supplying peanuts for them to cram into their crops and stash away for the cold months ahead. These beautiful birds have however given me numerous opportunities to obtain some nice portrait shots of what is normally a very shy and elusive bird for most of the year. All the images were obtained from my bedroom window in some of the brief brighter spells that have occurred in between deluges of rain Some of the shots are shown above together with an image of a magpie which is also a frequent garden visitor.
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10 comments:

  1. Bob Bushell22 November 2009 at 18:48

    Hi Mick, your pictures are really good, especially the first of the Jays.

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  2. Paul Foster22 November 2009 at 18:55

    Hi Brian,it`s nice when you can get them to come to you.Your`e right, Jays are elusive and you`ve got some quality images there!

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  3. Pete Woodruff22 November 2009 at 19:45

    Yes, you took full advantage of the Jays visiting your garden and the images you achieved are testament to some more of your excellent photography and more material for Birds2blog accompanied by the usual 'plug'......Well done Brian.

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  4. geoff gradwell23 November 2009 at 14:39

    Have you got a shotgun for the grey squirrels? Can't put peanuts out here, for the life of me without being inundated with the 'the rats with bushy tails!' And magpies, 19 in one tree not that long ago! Have a regular visiting adult male sparrowhawk here at the moment, so not much chance of anythng!
    Great pics Brian, as always... green!
    PS
    Just ordinary peanuts or 'monkey nuts'?
    g

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  5. Brian Rafferty23 November 2009 at 21:02

    Thanks folks for kind comments.

    Gradders. Just ordinary peanuts. Hopefully we can meet up sometime.

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  6. Sharon23 November 2009 at 22:19

    Gorgeous photos of the Jays - we had about 5 in our garden during the summer but they don't seem to visit anymore. Can still hear them though!

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  7. Anonymous24 November 2009 at 21:54

    What you are doing by feeding the birds is what I have done since about 1962. Obviously, there were years where I missed for health reasons or for some other reasons, but the animals need this kind of assistance here as they are constantly shut out of places to nest and their nut trees and berry bushes are run over with a bulldozer. So I do whatever I can and I am always pleased to see others taking care of the animals in their areas.

    With all of the rain you are getting there I am sure the birds appreciate the food you have out for them and it might be because of you and others that some birds are able to survive.

    The pictures you got are excellent and ones to be proud of.

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  8. holdingmoments25 November 2009 at 14:40

    Well worth the cost of the peanuts Brian. Those Jays are excellent.

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  9. JRandSue18 December 2009 at 17:12

    Great set of images,well don Brian.
    John.

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  10. Wildlife Photographer - Roberto Fabbri18 June 2011 at 07:20

    Hi all,

    The jays are several species of medium-sized usually colourful and noisy. The names jay and magpie are somewhat interchangeable and the evolutionary relationships are rather complex. Thanks a lot......

    Birth Of a Manta Ray

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