JAY WALKING IN MY GARDEN

Recently I’ve been posting about how I’d been seeing jays almost daily in and around the lane I live on and also near the garden.

Well this week they have been actually feeding in my garden, a pretty exciting step for them to take, especially given their sensitive and shy nature.

The first time a jay was in the garden is was one the fence, looking at the peanuts on the floor that had dropped out of my bag last weekend, the second time it was feeding on those nuts early one morning.

Unfortunately I couldn’t get my camera in time to get an image of this colourful bird, but next time I’ll be better prepared.

The weather is certainly colder as winter starts to take hold of the country, although it’s not severe enough to see many birds on the feeders.

That said I’m not around too much in daylight hours to see them, but there must be an increased number because the feeders are being drained quicker than last month.

This week I have some time to myself and watching which birds are now visiting my garden is one of my tasks.

I was looking at images from almost three years ago when there was about a foot of snow in our garden and was wondering if this is something we’ll see this winter.

While the really cold weather, harsh frost and heavy snow plays havoc for wildlife looking for food to survive on a daily basis, it also helps wipe out bacteria and other unwanted things and effectively ‘clears the slate’ ready for spring and the breeding season.

It’s simply a case of nature taking its course and while we might want to fight certain things, it’s never going to stop long-term, a bit like trying to stop the tide. It happens, it’s not perfect, but it’s worked for millions of years; so let’s embrace it.