what bird is this?

[alldigging]

I put a string of peanuts in shells out once and a jay turned up!

[Potstubsdustbins]

Last thing I want in my garden are jays and maggies.

The damage they do to the song bird population by eating eggs and chicks makes me anti.

Colin

[julesapple]

I see Jays when out and about, usually in the cider orchards. Magpies like to try and distract the chooks, then pinch pellets from the hopper. They rarely succeed in outwitting the girls. We also have a couple of albino Jackdaws from the noisy bunch who nest in next door's redundant chimneys.

We have Grey Wagtails who come to hop about near the pond, but they're late Autumn visitors before they fly off to warmer climates. Last Autumn we had a flock of Long Tailed Tits - they stayed long enough to clear the last of the tiny grapes from the vines, but left when there were no more grapes.

I'm thankful we don't see many small birds because we have eight cats. We don't feed the wild birds for that reason - no use encouraging the wee things to an early death.

[Doive]

We had a fieldfare turn up last week during the dump of snow, and (s)he made a brief return this afternoon during another spell of snow. Feisty thing, chasing all the woodies away from under the bird feeders. Nice to see it, expect it will be migrating shortly back from whence it came. We also have a pair of robins nesting in the hedge, bit early for them to be pairing up, but they do have a right ding dong with the one from next door. Loads of blue tits, coal tits and great tits, chaffinches, bullfinches, blackbirds, starlings and crows here too. Oh and yellowhammers, beautiful little birds.

[burhinus]

They are not just winter visitors Aileen, we have a healthy resident breeding population, though during the breeding season they tend to be a bit more secretive.