A jay stocking up its larder

As I've sat at my desk in the last few days I've been noticing the furtive flights of several jays out of the corner of my eye. As soon as I look up at them flying over and through the trees at the bottom of the garden they disappear further along the valley. In particular I have seen three of them separated by intervals of about one minute following the same path. Often they perch on the top few branches of the big ash tree sometimes close to magpies or pigeons which also use that spot as a vantage point. The jays usually only stay a few moments before heading on to the next tree, which I think is their behaviour pattern, not wanting to be out in the open for long.

This afternoon I set my camera up and waited and waited to try and catch at least one of them in flight. Several times I had looked away only to see the back of them disappearing again. Finally I spotted this jay fly up the valley and into the ash tree but it was hidden away behind the branches and leaves closer to me. A pigeon hardly moved.

I set the focus for where I thought it was positioned and waited. suddenly it flew from its perch and I managed a couple of frames. This image isn't sharp but it was the best I could do. What has surprised me is that I can clearly see the shape of a huge acorn in its mouth, which it must have been sitting with on its perch. I assume that it is carrying it up towards a nest to stash it away for winter, and that is the reason for their repetitive flights recently as their are  some large old oaks lower down the slopes near to the Lime Brook which forms the valley bottom. I must check on their behaviour and nesting habits. I think I will keep trying to photograph them as they aren't commonly in view around here, so I must grab the chance while I can.