A Jay and Roe Deer.

The Jay is a really colourful member of the crow family. They are, however, cunning and intelligent in equal parts. I was sat today, well concealed in some cover trying to discover and then photograph the bird or birds s that are responsible for eating the apple that I have been putting out on a log in Haldon Forest. I suddenly heard an unusual, quite musical call that I wasn't familiar with and I was expectant and hopeful that whatever it was would come down to feed. Then, it was only seconds when suddenly this Jay landed on a log just in front of me. I love to see this species, they are stunning birds. What had happened was not unusual. Jays are great imitators and regularly copy the calls of other birds. Quite what species this one was imitating I am yet to find out but it was another very interesting encounter and worth sitting there in the really cold and miserable conditions. It grabbed a crop full of peanuts before flying off again to stash the nuts which is what they do. They are known to actually remember hundreds of places where they have stashed food, usually acorns incidentally. Some acorns get missed and this is a way that new Oak trees grow. I went back up to the woods just before dusk to see if anything had taken the apple and yes, it had but still not while have been there. Perhaps tomorrow? However, it was just simply lovely to see a little group of Roe Deer, including one of this year's fauns feeding on Bramble leaves not too far in front of the hide. A great end to my day.

There were many, many Coal Tits coming to the feeder today, it's quite remarkable that in the last 10 years, or perhaps even less than that, Coal Tits seem to have become the most common tit species and are far, far more often seen than Blue Tits by me at least. They were formerly one of our most common birds.  I have done a bit of a quick internet research to see if this is reflected in any publications but I couldnt find any information to confirm this. But for example, today I counted more than 50 visits to peanuts by Coal Tits and not one Blue Tit.....yesterday there was one!