There is no doubt the jay is one of the most beautiful of the crow family and it is a pleasure to see it in our woodlands.

Until the 1950s it was a rare bird and for some time perhaps into the 1990s it was, if not quite extinct, very rare.

It all began with the Victorians who had a passion for wearing hats with lots of feathers and decorations.

Women’s hats were huge whilst most men wore trilby hats with a colourful feather pushed into the rim around the hat.

The wing feathers of the jay contain some of an iridescent blue and the jays were trapped and killed just for this.

The jay has now recovered its numbers and whilst there is no doubt that like magpies they do eat other birds’ eggs and nestlings, their favourite food is acorns.

As well as eating acorns they also bury stocks for the winter and those which are not retrieved germinate.

The jay over thousands of years has helped to spread the wonderful oak woodlands of Britain.