Now I know what has been taking the free offerings!
What a great day yesterday turned out to be. It started with a visit to the wood, it was carnage again with both feeding stations wrecked and every shred of food gone. The plastic feeders had been chewed through and ruined, obviously squirrels were the culprits. I have been leaving out free "day-old chicks". These can be purchased frozen and in packs of 144. They are a by product of the poultry trade where they are sexed at hatching, the females are retained to go on to become laying hens. The males are worthless for obvious reasons. It all sounds pretty cruel and it is of course. These day old males are then euthanised by gassing and then frozen to become food for the exotic pet trade. They can be bought for just a few pence each. I have been hoping to lure Birds of Prey down in front of the hides, or even Stoats and Foxes who will gladly take them. Every one that I have left has been taken and I was keen to see who is responsible expecting Carrion Crows to be the culprits.
Kingfishers and Whitethroat.
But more of that later, Even though it was a dull wet start to the day, I spent an hour sat in the hide opposite one of my Kingfisher nests but that proved fruitless and I am suspecting that this pair are breeding elsewhere because there was no sign of them. By now it was PM and I was out at the river at Kingfisher nest number 2. I have good news from this nest, it has been "worked" in the last 24 hours with obvious signs of burrowing in the previously washed out burrow. At the mouth of the nest, maggots were evident, obviously dragged there by the burrowing activity. Kingfisher nests are known to be filthy with the youngsters and incubating parents sitting on a mound of fish remains and droppings that accumulate around the growing chicks. By the time the chicks fledge it is a fetid smelly hole so it wasn't a surprise to see maggots. Underneath the burrow there was fresh earth and clear scratch marks around the entrance. This is really great news. As I walked back to the car there was a Whitethroat patrolling up and down. This is usual behaviour, they choose a territory and then sing from favourite perches to attract a mate. This is the best time of year to try and see them because once they begin breeding their behaviour becomes much more furtive. I have not been lucky so far this year but yesterday I managed a photo at last. Not the best in the world but I am reasonably pleased.
Back to the Wood and the Jay.
So now its late afternoon and I am back in the wood. The feeders are all empty again, I top them up, place a day old chick on a mound in front of the hide and take may place, hidden away and comfortable. The first bird to arrive was a Great Tit, then Blue Tits and then suddenly there it was, a magnificent Jay. It had landed on the log a few feet from me. I couldn't get it all in the frame. It looked around for peanuts and then flew down to the ground to pick one or two up that had been missed by the squirrels. Then it saw the day old chick and without much hesitation, went towards it, carefully had a look with an intelligent tilt of the head and then picked it up after mouthing it for a few seconds, picked it up and flew off. I uttered one of my wows, reserved for really special sightings, like fighting Kingfishers or mating Dippers! Jays are a target of gamekeepers who rear Pheasants to release for shoots, I can imagine that they must be real predators of young pheasants because this bird was extremely attracted to the chick and hardly hesitated before it took it away to eat in the safety of a high tree somewhere near.
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