Jays - Has anyone else witnessed this behaviour?

Question

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.

KatTai · Accepted Answer

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

waxwing · Answer

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.

Carole W · Answer

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.