Photo of the Day - Woodland Jay

A recent shot of a Jay taken in the garden.

Frosty Birds

The past couple of days here have looked like a winter wonderland. Having had freezing fog, everything was covered in a thick layer of frost. With the sun shining I braved the minus 3 conditions for a few hours in my hides. My first goal was to try and get the Buzzards down on the frosty grass. It took quite some time before one of them decided to come to feed. The male was sitting in the tree above, but for some reason didn't want to come down. I think possibly because he had watched me go into the hide. The female who is much more wary than the male did eventually fly in. I had to be extra careful not to spook her as I had a feeling it would be over for the day if I did. Carefully, I managed to get the shots that I wanted. After she had gone I turned my attention to the 5 or 6 Jays that were coming in to feed. After about 3 hours the skies clouded over and it was back to the house to thaw out.

Feeding Jays

I have just updated my Jay images on my main website. I hadn't realised that I had such a backlog of them and have added 73 new shots. Here are a few including them taking acorns.

My Favourite Images (4)

Part four of the series of some of my favourite images.

Kingfisher
These next two images were taken in my woodland garden where there is a small river. I know that to have Kingfishers in your garden might seem perfect but it is not as ideal as it sounds. They are very occasional as they breed much further upstream, I have spent many days sitting in my hide without any results and I haven't seen or heard any this year at all. I am always listening out for them though and will be straight down to the hide when they return.

Kestrel
I was very fortunate with this lovely male bird. It allowed me to get very close for some nice shots.

Jay
The perfect lighting on this close up was enhanced by the reflection of the water in a bird bath which it was perched on the edge of.

Lapwing
A difficult subject to get good flying shots of due to their flight being very erratic. This is probably my best effort as it was large in the frame giving good detail.

Jays

I have a family of five young Jays and two adults coming to feed at the moment. There is a lot of interaction between them that I have been trying to photograph with varying results. I haven't achieved the shots I am after yet, so more work to do on this one over the next week or so.

An adult

This parent was responding to one of the young which had landed nearby and was calling to be fed.

Juvenile

They don't seem to know what to do with the peanuts yet, often sitting with it in the beak like this for several minutes before putting it down again. They are still quite dependant on the parents.

Young Jays

As I mentioned in my last post, I have been trying to photograph the young Jays in my garden. It has been quite a job as they seem to prefer to hang off the fatball feeders than go for the easier photogenic option of peanuts on a log, paired with the poor weather over the last month, getting them in the right spot with the sun out hasn't been easy. One plus point is that they seem slow to mature and still look like juveniles.

Here's some of the best shots so far starting off with an adult for comparison.