We have had a family of jays visit for the last two years during the spring and early summer. This year two or three of them have also visited in the winter months (We count ourselves very lucky as we have a very small garden on a housing estate). One of the jays visited recently and took some monkey nuts we had placed in a hanging basket. He then proceeded to hide some of them - one in a crevice in a concrete fence post, two or three in a tree, one under a neighbour's shed roof and one in our other neighbour's garden which he then covered with a leaf. He then flew off with one. He has since returned and taken the monkey nut out of the fence post, inspected it and then put it back in the same place. I was wondering if anyone else has witnessed this sort of behaviour in their garden. A great tit often comes into the garden after the Jay has deposited the peanuts in the tree and removes them to eat himself.
Jays cache food during the winter like squirrels do so that when times get hard they still have food available (provided the cache hasn't been raided). This is common behaviour but as jays are such shy creatures it is rarely seen, you are very lucky to be able to see them doing this in your garden! Looks like your great tit has found an easy way to get his meals though lol
Millie & Fly the Border Collies
Hi Carole, and welcome to the forum,
You are lucky to have jays, never mind to witness them caching their peanuts. Congratulations, well done for witnessing it.
Cheers, Linda.
See my photos on Flickr
Hello Carole, so fantastic that you were able to watch the jay hiding it's food. Great that you were so observant.
Hi Carole. and welcome to the forum.
Yes, that is typical Jay behaviour - cache their food.
You are lucky to have witnessed the behaviour.
Regards
Kathy and Dave
Hi Carole,
I made this comment in one of my posts late last year, when I saw Jays burying nuts,and I asked "are we going to get a bad winter", Well we did.
John.
All the crow family stash food. They don't usually let others see them doing it though, so you did well to catch the jay at it!
A closed mouth gathers no foot.
Thank you everyone for your replies. We are still getting regular visits from our jay/jays, We are looking forward to the spring/summer as for the last two years we have had visits from adult jays and their offspring several times daily - we have had as many as 6 in the garden at one time. We count ourselves as exceptionally lucky to have these handsome, secretive and fascinating birds visit giving us hours of enjoyment watching their antics.
Hello Carole
Welcome to the forum from me also. You are really lucky as you say, Jays are very shy creatures. Like you we put monkey nuts out which were intentionally for the squirrels but we found about 2 years ago the Jays like them too. Since then we get visited on a daily basis by the Jays and have also witnessed them secreting their food around the garden. We have one Jay who in particular inspects each nut before doing something with it. We have a plant pot tied to an old apple tree filled with monkey nuts and when this Jay visits he pulls out the nuts one by one and places them on the branches of the tree, if he doesn''t lik a particular nut he puts it back in the pot. When more than one arrives, they sit patiently while one inspects the pot and does what he needs to do and then one by one they each go in and do what they need to do. It's very entertaining to watch.
Kerry
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kezmo6310/
Hi Kezmo,
What a brilliant story. I love it. You must get hours of entertainment watching them. I can't believe he puts the ones he doesn't fancy back in the pot!
Love your story Kezmo
Years ago I used to thread Monkey nuts in their shells for members of the Tit family and they gave hours of entertainment hanging upside down, and cracking open the nut shell.
Never thought of a Jay having the same idea with the Monkey nuts. Great fun that you have placed some food for the Jay to source out, and I am sure that he enjoyed the 'food' puzzle' that you give him.