I watched this blue jay for several minutes gleaning the snags at the marsh edge yesterday morning, including the one on which it is perched here. I did a little reading up on this bird, and learned that although its diet consists mainly of vegetable material like seeds, nuts and berries, it also feeds on insects. Apparently it figures largely in the control of tent caterpillars. I also learned that in the fall, the young gather in flocks and migrate south, while the adults remain where they nested and form groups with other blue jays in the neighbourhood. I am amused by what one author has to say about this gregarious bird: "The crowd at [our] feeders is no mob. It's not even a rabble. It's more of a family reunion. But . . . jays are greedy. Nothing can empty a feeder faster than a reunion of blue jays. Chickadees politely take one seed at a time and eat it in sight of the feeder. Blue jays eat and run. And they return again and again until all the seed is gone." The thing is, they're not eating all the seed they take, they also hide much of it, in crevices or by poking it into the ground.
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