This Jay is a real character, for starters it is a very good mimic and will call like a distant Buzzard as well as a flock of Jackdaws and distant Rooks. At first I was decieved on numerous ocassions by the Buzzard immitation especially, several times taking the camera off the Jay and looking for the Buzzard that was calling. But now I am not so easily fooled and when I hear a Buzzard but can't see one I am ready to photograph the Jay instead. as well as that, it will try to take off every single peanut that I have put out for the Nuthatches and Tits, coming back over and over again to fill it's beak with nuts, as many as 15 at a time which it then buries in the field in front of me. Then, along comes the squirrel and digs them up again.
I try very hard on my Blog to involve my readers as intimately as I can with the birds and wildlife that I photograph. It is always my intention to try to give you a taste of the excitement and enjoyment that I get from spending countless hours stuck in a muddy dark hole and not knowing what I am going to see next. The Blog is always at the back of my mind and I always want a better picture and a better experience to share with you. So today, when there was lots going, on I was pleased not only for myself. I can't get enough of photography at the moment, I am just loving my new camera and even though I am still a little bit disappointed with the species count at the hide, I am persevering on a daily basis in the hope that eventually Bramblings, Fieldfares and Redwings will come down to the feed and in to my viewfinder. Today the Buzzard came down just the same as yesterday. I have the feeling that there is just one bird holding this territory now and it is an amazing spectacle when it comes in to land on the gate post. My heart always races when it flies over to investigate the free offering. It will do this once or twice then go back into the edge of the wood where it seems to wait a while to check if all is well and then come back to repeat the procedure before, on the second or third fly-over, making the decision to land and pick up the prey. This is very convenient for me because after the flirst fly-over, you can get yourself ready reasonably confident that you are not wasting your time and it's only going to be just a matter of time before the action! That's the way it happened both yesterday and today.
The Buzzard has landed on the post and starts to fold it's wings down while all the time looking to check for safety.
It looks at the chick before grabbing it in it's talons.
This is just a split second before it flies off back to the wood to eat it's snack in the relative safety of a high tree. The only enemy that a Buzzard would have is a human being so quite why they are so cautious is a mystery. I guess that historically they have been persicuted by man and only thiose birds with a cautious nature survived to pass on that trait to the next generation. If they detect just the slightest twitch from me at 25 yards away they will zoom off.
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