A gentle spot of vismigging from the Mammoth this morning, the last before I migrate South West tomorrow for a week on Scilly. A rather unspectacular morning overall, numbers generally well down but 33 Jay moved West along the line of the A46 in small groups.
There has been a bit of discussion on Trektellen and the Yahoo Group about Continental Jay heading our way through Holland, indeed 22 were headed West at Hunstanton a few days back. With Jay being uncommon at best in the Soar Valley I can only surmise these are migrants, irrupting West in search of food. The Acorn crop in Europe seems to have failed this year.
Now what else eats Acorns, is a member of the Crow family and would be greatly appreciated by British birders?
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Dunno – what other crow eats acorns? Nutcrackers feed almost exclusively on pine seeds in their native range, and Siberian Jays are omnivorous but also live in pine forests.
I was thinking of Nutcracker… I thought they had a fondness for Acorns? I’m no Nutcracker expert apart from seeing Clark’s Nutcracker in BC.
They’ll probably eat them if that’s all they can get, but it’s not a usual food. Most of the ones that turn up here seem to end up eating apples. Or peanuts in the case of the Staffordshire bird!