“A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song.” – Chinese Proverb
In our neck of the woods we have a different version of Blue Jay than back East. Its called a Western Scrub Jay. Similar to the Blue Jays in the East, they are fairly large and sometimes a bit of the backyard bully at the feeder.
It had been a while since I had restocked my bird feeding tray and hidden some critter food in some pots in the backyard (squirrels like to work for their food). I have a squirrel feeder where you put it on a tree and they lift up the lid to get the food, but since these squirrels have tree climbing aversion, I’ve just put in down on the ground and propped open the lid with a stick. Its nice because then the food doesn’t get wet. The Blue Jays love digging into the critter food for the peanuts. The ones with the shell still on them. Its hilarious. They will toss out all the corn and anything else digging for the large peanuts. Once in a while they will eat a corn kernel, which they like, but its the peanuts that seem to be of most interest to them. 
Its quite comical to see them pull up with a big peanut hanging straight out of their beak. But this morning I saw something in their behavior I have never noticed before. I’m not a seasoned bird watcher, but I do enjoy watching birds. Anyway, it flew up into the tree and then hopped back down on the ground and buried the peanut! Three times it did this. It actually took its beak and used it like a hammer pounding the nut into the dirt. Looking around for spies and then covering it up with leaves. I found this rather astonishing really. I mean squirrels and other rodents do this, preparing for winter, but a bird? Too funny.
Squirrel with his STASH!
Its also amazing to me how long I can go without feeding the birds and how little time it takes them to all flock back in droves! I imagine a Paul Revere sort of situation where one of them keeps checking and then sounds the bugle!
