By and large Jays are shy and secretive birds, rarely venturing from cover: you sometimes get a quick sighting as they flash through the woods or cross the road from one bunch of trees to another. Although hearing the odd one, we hadn’t actually seen a jay since we set off back in April – not altogether surprising as we weren’t out hunting for them.

But the last few days, we’ve seen quite a few, in different areas, and flying around very visibly, and well out of their cover and comfort zone. Given the recent poor publicity, we wondered if they were trying to mount a take-over of the RSPB. But more likely they just have too many hungry young mouths to feed, and they’re forced to move further afield to get their food supply.

We wonder when they’ll return to skulking around in the woods…