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Species Appreciation Post: One of my favourite birds the Jay-I got very passionate and nostalgic writing this one, I think what I have to say here indicates how nature is ingrained within me

After taking the 7th and final picture in this photoset of a Jay at Lakeside this morning with time on my hands throughout the day I decided to do another extra post about the Jay one of my species appreciation ones. This post has become my go to activity when I do have a bit of time on my hands since I started them in 2015 and they really serve the purpose I hope of delving a little deeper into my wildlife watching and photography and pick apart what I like about certain species. For when I do them about favourite bird species of mine particularly ones like the Jay that have been on my list of favourite birds for a long time, it also serves the purpose to remind me and really pick apart what it is I love about a bird species so much. 

So the Jay is one of those true favourite birds of mine in that they’re such a common species that some might question why they’re on my list of 24 favourite birds, yet I see a beauty in them and things that doesn’t make them ordinary at all for me. So basically what I do really like about them is their striking colour and appearance and the fact it was a bird I was familiar with before I even saw it. The Jay for me sums up that era in my early birdwatching when I couldn’t keep my nose out of bird books as birds became my thing and my hobby, paving the way for all wildlife and the photography interest as I often say. This era at a time when I couldn’t birdwatch as extensively with school and often only one weekend afternoon would be myself and my mother’s birdwatching time unlike now where its always both weekend days we go out with the rather more lively dogs we have now than our Sally the old Black Labrador we lost in 2008 but I digress. 

I look back on the Jay as a bird I aspired towards seeing, perhaps as much as the seabirds, Osprey and Kingfisher amongst my favourite birds looking back. I still remember the moment in 2007 at perhaps our second ever reserve visit to Titchfield Haven the first reserve I went to also when I saw the Jay fly up onto a branch and into view beside us in a hide. I had not seen many of my now 248 strong birds in my life at that point obviously and I think Cormorant, Great Black Backed Gull and Little Grebe were also life ticks for me that day which really is saying something about how early it was but none gave off quite a spark as the Jay. This first ever sighting was not too far away from where I got the 5th picture in this photoset of a Jay at Titchfield Haven in 2015. Titchfield and the Jay have quite the association for me so much so that I always listen to music in our car journeys to places and I have called the playlist which I listen to when we go to the east of Hampshire on the coast the Jaylist. It was originally called Farlington and Titchfield but I decided to change the names when Titchfield Haven and Farlington Marshes really weren’t the only places we went to down that way and it was an honour to name it afte r a bird so precious to me. 

Whilst I love a good Raven or Chough when I see one and both have been big parts of my birdwatching year in 2017 being in my list of 24 favourite birds automatically makes the Jay my favourite crow and that’s another reason why I love it. I am a positive person and always like to see light rather than dark in every situation and the Jay is a very bright bird from a typically dark family. So and I am literally having this thought for the very first time as I write this maybe the Jay is the bird that sums my personality up best. I remember going back to the basic early birdwatching days again when I learnt all the crows I had similar feelings about the Magpie and was enthused as a nine or ten year old going round telling everybody “did you know Magpies are crows?”. I really liked Magpies early on but unfortunately like many they are just too common a bird to keep me really excited by them going forward. So the Jay sort of took that baton on as the different looking crow I have admired and its remained one of the most exciting birds to see for me. 

I also think my admiration for the Jay is because they are such successful and hardy and feisty birds with a great call. I think they are also a key part of British landscape and culture with how they cash the acorns and then don’t come back to them leading to legendary oak trees growing. Lastly in terms of them being one of my favourite birds they are one I can see year round and always are a good bet to be the first of my favourite birds I see in a year as I did in 2013 and 2015. With my list of favourite birds some are a rare treat to see for me like the Puffin and then you have the Jays, Little Egrets, Great Crested Grebes etc which you can see any when. I said to someone on Twitter recently that this helps me develop just as intimate a connection with favourite birds I can see often and close and if not builds even more intimate relationships. 

The other Jay shots of mine from over the years in this photoset are are at (1-4) Blashford Lakes in 2011 and 2012, RSPB Pulborough Brooks in Sussex in 2013 and at Blashford Lakes again a few weeks after that and in the 6th picture in this photoset at Stoke Park Woods a really good spot for them last year.

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PARIS 

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By Andrés Orozco

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