20th December
A lazy-ish Sunday, but I managed to get out for a little while to find some wildlife. So today’s species is one I have actually seen today and not one I’ve randomly picked out of a book or seen earlier in the year. Novelty I know!
Jay Garrulus glandarius (Linnaeus, 1758)
I heard a screech than a low flash of crow-sized a bird and that was it. The clue was the bright white rump together with the screech. It was a Jay. We only have one type of Jay in the UK so we just call it Jay, but officially it’s the Eurasian Jay. It is predominantly light brown in colour with a bright blue patch on it’s otherwise black and white wing. They are in the corvid family so are related to crows. Unlike many crows they are more secretive, it is always a highlight to see one in a garden, unlike ten-a-penny jackdaws or magpies for example! I like Jays a lot as they are common but retiring but at the same time flashy. Go and see one!
Advent species so far…
- 1st: Goosander Mergus merganser
- 2nd: December Moth Poecilocampa populi
- 3rd: Horse Chestnut Aesculus hippocastanum
- 4th Black-headed Gull Chroicocephalus ridibundus
- 5th Cape Sparrow Passer melanurus
- 6th Loricera pilicornis
- 7th Great Tit Parus major
- 8th Tipula paludosa
- 9th Redwing Turdus iliacus
- 10th Bank Vole Myodes glareolus
- 11th Tawny Owl Strix aluco
- 12th Sparrowhawk Accipiter nisus
- 13th Kingfisher Alcedo atthis
- 14th Nebria brevicollis
- 15th Virginia Opossum Didelphis virginiana
- 16th —–
- 17th Bacchus elongata
- 18th Reed Warbler Acrocephalus scirpaceus
- 19th Red Deer Cervus elaphus
- 20th Jay Garrulus glandarius
A Species a Day 