A jay shelters from the rain

I was sitting at the table looking at some paperwork when out of the corner of my eye I saw a strange movement of a bird at the end of the garden. My immediate thought was that it might have been a jay but by the time I looked more closely it had disappeared. Then a second bird flashed past in that rather secretive way that jays have, and I knew there was a pair there.

I went to fetch my camera, opened the sliding door of the dining room and was delighted when this jay hopped out of the thick leaf cover nearer the trunk of the tree and onto this branch. It sat for several minutes looking rather bedraggled and preened itself as well as rubbing its head against the branch. 

It seemed to know I was there and before long it flew away again to the right of the picture, which was the direction it had come from. We don't see them very often, rather to say they are occasional visitors. But I'm always delighted to see them as their colours and size are rather magnificent.

Later in the afternoon with heavy rain still falling I prepared all my camera gear as I was heading off to Wiltshire to meet JT at his woodland nature reserve. I was hoping that rain would cease overnight as predicted so that I could spend the whole of the next day taking pictures at Underhill Wood.