Bird a day - Blue jay

What: There's a family of 5 or so that moves through this area making a total ruckus. I keep getting my hopes up, thinking that all their alarms are directed at a predator (I've seen a Cooper's hawk nearby on quite a few occasions in the last couple weeks). But every time it's the same: nothing.

Here I couldn't figure out what the bird was doing until I looked at the picture later. Initially it looked like it was peeling bark off the tree and eating it. Turns out it had found a peanut too big to swallow whole and it was tearing it into manageable sizes to swallow. It was gripping it with its feet and ripping up with its head. Pretty neat to see it solve the problem of size.

Where: Silver maple in my yard

Other notes: Tis the season for wildflowers. Skunk cabbage, hepatica, coltsfoot, and squill are all up. Wood frogs eggs are starting to fill the ponds, spring peepers are singing at Shelburne Pond, and buds are starting to bust!