Family time

We've not had much snow here, but the cold spell has brought lots more birds into the garden. First pickings each morning are going to the gang of crows that wait for me to fill up the feeders.
We always have lots of jackdaws around and this morning I counted 16 at the feeders, on the bird table or waiting for a turn to eat. Over the last week or so they have been joined by a few magpies, two or three rooks and, today, a single jay.
The rooks find the hanging seed-feeders a bit tricky, but seem to have got the hang of the cage that holds fat balls. One bird gets hold of the fat through the mesh and then whacks it against the bars until bits fall to the ground where the others are waiting.
I feel as though I'm on my way to 'collecting' the whole crow family as we also get a carrion crow dropping in from time to time, but I may have to wait a long time to complete the set. Yes, ravens do over-fly the garden from time to time, but I don't expect to add a hooded crow or a chough to my bird list any time soon...  

Tickled pink

I've seen and heard lots of jays in the valley over the last week or so - and yesterday, spotted one in the garden. It made my day; perhaps that should be I was chuffed. Or is it choughed?
At this time of year we often hear them, but I've not seen one in the garden before. But now it sounds like we're in the middle of a jay invasion, or at the BBC Radio 4's Saving Species reckons we are.

Jay
Photo: Luc Viatour/www.Lucnix.be

It was picking up on the fact that the BTO has seen a marked upturn in the reporting rate for jays this year. Birders are seeing more of them and, in some cases, they're seeing them in flocks of more than 20.
Why? It could be that jays are on the move within the UK because of problems with food availability. The acorn crop here is middling, but maybe it's been a bad year elsewhere.
Or maybe jays from the Continent are coming here this year and that it's in mainland Europe that they are going hungry. I suppose we'll find out in time.