By David Tomlinson
David Tomlinson has been fascinated by birds for so long as he can keep in mind, and has been writing about them for nearly as lengthy. An annual spotlight is listening to his first Cuckoo of the yr at dwelling in Suffolk, England, which he charges as virtually as thrilling as watching White-necked Rockfowls in Ghana or Steller’s Eiders in North Norway. A former tour chief, he has seen an terrible lot of birds world wide, and needs he may keep in mind extra of them.
Some years in the past, when there was a transfer to revise and modernize English fowl names, there was a suggestion that the Jay must be known as the Acorn Jay, to distinguish it from its 4 Asian cousins which are additionally members of the Garrulus genus (the Plain-crowned Jay, White-face Jay, Black-headed Jay and Amami Jay). The proposal didn’t catch on, so it ended up because the Eurasian Jay, one in all 48 birds, in keeping with HBW, which have the somewhat boring moniker Eurasian in entrance of their names. In fact, Acorn Jay would have been applicable, as there’s nothing this fowl likes greater than acorns, as I used to be reminded throughout a latest go to to the Greek island of Kefalonia. The island is roofed in evergreen oak bushes (Quercus ilex), and these bushes present a prolific crop of acorns for the Jays to take pleasure in.
The Jay’s enthusiasm for acorns is properly documented, and they’ll begin harvesting them as quickly as they’re ripe, flying off with as many as six or seven within the gullet and one other within the invoice. Each shall be rigorously cached, and the good majority shall be recovered, and eaten, in the course of the lean months of winter.
Jays clearly have a exceptional reminiscence for the place they retailer their acorns, however invariably some will stay buried, and lots of of Britain’s oak forests (and presumably lots of Eurasia’s oak forests) are thought to have been planted by Jays. Observers have famous these colourful crows flying as much as 18km backward and forward from an outdated oakwood when amassing acorns.
They’re usually shy and comparatively secretive woodland birds, however right now of the yr when they’re in full acorn-collecting mode, they change into a lot bolder and extra conspicuous. It’s a special matter within the spring. Within the distant days after I used to take part in fowl races, discovering a Jay in Could was at all times a problem. I keep in mind as soon as reaching over 130 species (a very good complete for a Could Day in England) with out having seen or heard a Jay, regardless of spending time in oak woodland. We discovered one ultimately, which was a terrific reduction as it will have been a foul fowl to have missed.
I’m certain that if Jays had a voice as stunning as their plumage they’d have extra admirers, however these noisy birds’ calls are usually described as ugly, harsh, and raucous, whereas they didn’t get the title Garrulus for nothing. Within the spring, although, Jays can shock you with their somewhat unlikely tune, described by BWP (Birds of the Western Palearctic) as a “medley of mimicked calls and phrases”. Jays are extraordinarily good mimics, which Merlin customers ought to concentrate on.
Whereas all of us take pleasure in seeing Jays in our gardens within the autumn, they’re much less widespread within the spring. David Bannerman, writing 70 years in the past within the first quantity of The Birds of the British Isles, famous that the Jay “is a frequent pilferer of gardens and orchards” and “an unscrupulous arch-egg-robber. Not solely eggs however nestling birds of many species fall prey to the Jay.” I keep in mind Eric Hosking, Britain’s first skilled fowl photographer, telling me that he a lot most popular working in woods the place gamekeepers shot and trapped the Jays. Right here there was significantly much less probability of the fowl whose nest he was photographing being raided. A lot of Eric’s traditional images have been of birds at their nest, taken from a conceal. He labored with brief lenses on full-plate cameras, so needed to be near his topic.
Jays have an unlimited vary and actually do stay as much as being Eurasian, as they are often discovered as far east as Japan. There aren’t any fewer than 27 acknowledged subspecies in six teams.
