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Post by rowanberry on Sept 23, 2021 6:28:39 GMT
I've been checking the oak trees near us, and there's so sign of any acorns yet. From what I can remember last autumn was a mast year- the ground was covered with them, so I'm wondering if this is going to be a fallow one? The jays are starting to cache their monkey nuts, I noticed a few days ago. They not doing it very well so far- they're just sticking them in the hedge where the first squirrel who comes along will find them. Maybe it's just a half-hearted sort of going through the motion for now- during the last fallow year they were on that bird table all day, frantically gathering and caching... I couldn't keep up with the supply and demand and had to make a big giant monkeynut bird feeder for them out of a bait bucket and a large plant pot saucer. I hope I don't have to do that again- it turned into a constant battle trying to keep the squirrels out of it.
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Post by aeshna5 on Sept 23, 2021 14:34:05 GMT
I've only noticed a few acorns though haven't looked too hard, though plenty of oaks around here. I have seen quite a few Jays on my travels this week- at least some of which seem to have found some acorns.
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Post by rowanberry on Sept 26, 2021 18:13:57 GMT
I brought them a handful of acorns from a Turkey oak we came across, but even it didn't have many. I managed to collected about 2 dozen.
The jays cleared them off the table in seconds.
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Post by rowanberry on Oct 8, 2021 6:54:08 GMT
I came through a rec ground yesterday that's near us, but it's one I don't visit very often. I'd forgotten there were several pin oaks there, and there's no trace of an acorn on any of them, which was surprising.
The last time the English oaks had a fallow year the other species still produced... this time around it's like they are all taking a break.
This time last Autumn we didn't see any jays for nearly the whole of October- it being a mast year they were too busy caching; this year they're out on the bird table constantly.
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Post by aeshna5 on Oct 8, 2021 13:47:08 GMT
I've been seeing plenty of Jays virtually everywhere I've been recently. When I was in Richmond Park the other day we saw one with something in its bill & it was a sweet chestnut rather than an acorn!
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