At the feeding station

           Jays are very difficult birds to see for most of the year but in the Autumn and Winter they seem much more active, particularly when they are gathering acorns to hide away for leaner times. They can be pretty noisy too. When I drove in a few days ago, a group of four were making quite a racket from the top of the Redwood tree. Often, this is when they find a Tawny Owl or Buzzard roosting and they will give it a hard time in order to move it away from their territory. It is usually worth checking out just what is getting them upset in case it is an owl but I found nothing this time. The birds soon moved off once I got out of the vehicle. They are shy birds, just showing me their white rumps as they flew off further into the wood.

      I put out the woodland seed-feeder a weeks or so ago and it was very busy on this last visit with tits and Nuthatches coming and going constantly. Cole, Blue, Great and Marsh tits were all present. Marsh Tits with their brown plumage and black caps, are the rarest of the bunch and always good to see. They are declining in number across Kent these days. Even though all closely related, squabbles were frequent between the different species, such is their eagerness to feed. Nuthatches being bigger birds often get the feeder to themselves. I like to think the birds recognise me a bit and allow me to stand quite close; the Cole Tits definitely know its feeding time when I draw up in my old truck as they are always the first to arrive when I top up the seed supply.

one of the regular altercations.

Cole tits have a distinctive white stripe on the back of the head

The Nuthatch coming in to land

 Cole tits squabbling

3 species of Tit, with Marsh at the top

A Nuthatch gets the feeder to itself, maybe its that long beak

one of the noisy Jays in the Redwood

Always camera shy, I managed one photo in France this Autumn, of a Jay with an acorn