TomKal foto

Eurasian Jay is an agent of a forest police or, if you prefer, belongs to the forest's early warning system. Many times, when I was camouflaged in the woods, it approached me so close that after realising the distance, it started screaming and scared away all the nearby birds. Once, it was really amusing, when it sat about 3 meters from my observation window and for couple of seconds we were looking at each other, while I waited for its final reaction. Jay had an acorn in its beak, which it dropped after finding out I was there, and it started preventive action. Itself, it is a beautiful, medium sized bird. Its weight is less than 200 grams with a wingspan exceeding 50 centimeters. It is very gluttonous. When it finds a source of the food, it will not fly away until its jowl is full. I have seen an Eurasian Jay in a situation in which, when it could not stuff any more in its alimentary tract, it took the last corn in its beak and flew away. Alike swallowing whole acorns. You can see that it is an achievement for it, swallowing such big seeds, but it does that despite the effort and the difficulty of it. Eurasian Jays, especially outside breeding season, are getting more common in urbanized areas and edges of forests.
Last minute news 05/2016
Taking photographs of common chiffchaffs, suddenly I saw an Eurasian jay and I managed to take several interesting pictures from a small distance. These photos as well as the ones taken while photographing common buzzards two months ago, were the reason for remodeling this gallery.
Last minute news -10/2013
It is not so easy to take photos of jays even though it is fairly common species. In the woods the jay raises the alarm as soon as it catches sight of us and the game is over. I suppose the best place for capturing it is in the suburbs, especially in the autumn-winter season. Those pictures of jays added in October 2013 were taken in the Malta ZOO in Poznań. Definitely the birds are not under the care of the zoo but a large, splendid area of wooded land provides good conditions for them to live there. It is also important, that there they are not as skittish as those living in forests. They are accustomed to people walking there but keep safe distance, not too long for my lens of 600.Most pictures of jays presented in this gallery up to now were taken in the eagle’s look-out and that let me take photos from so short distance.
Last minute news  12/2013
While being all day in the sea eagle’s lookout I took the opportunity  to take several successful pictures of jays. I had a lot of time to shoot jays for this reason that the eagles did not stay the whole time nearby the lookout. Unfortunately the light was not conducive to take dynamic picture of  jay which was taking its wings off. Not only it was impossible to adjust short exposure times but also jays approached too close to the lookout, often fulfilling the whole frame, just walking around on the grass. I attempted repeatedly and failed. Most dynamic pictures ended up in the rubbish bin, and the reason was almost always lack of proper focus, combined with poor framing. Only a few photos showing splendid outstretched wings of jay, exposing its beautiful, shining, bright blue feathers – after all this time I did not manage to give the full glory of their beauty. However static pictures of preying jays radically changed the gallery of the species. In memory of making efforts and attempts to take dynamic images I also published a few of those out of focus. They will be placed in the gallery until I manage to take better ones.
Last minute news - 12/2013
I have added a few pictures of jays, or it is better to say the scenes of their quarrel about the best place on a branch. Unfortunately, as it usually happens in cloudy days of December there was not enough light to take pictures perfectly in focus. However they are interesting to such extent to enrich and transform the existing gallery and that is why together with the latest photos they were put in the website news. I hope the opportunity to take dynamic and worthwhile pictures of this beautiful bird will come yet.
Last minute news - 04/2017
All day long waiting for the marsh-harrier resulted in more interesting photos of the Eurasian jays. The gallery has been renewed.
Last minute news-11/2020
Last minute news-06/2023
Last minute news-06-2024-Finland