September 4, 2011 - Moving Crew
Welcome to the Nature Notebook.

One, then another, then a third blue-and-white bird makes a beeline to an oak tree. Their loud cries confirm their identity as blue jays. These medium-sized members of the crow family are on a mission. They are gathering and storing acorns for the winter. Gulping one or two nuts and carrying another in their beaks, the threesome heads off to hide their prizes. Unlike squirrels that carry acorns and walnuts only a short distance from the parent tree, blue jays transport acorns, beechnuts and chestnuts over hill and dale up to over a mile away. Since many of these seeds hidden by blue jays are never found they end up sprouting into new trees. In the wake of modern bulldozers, blue jays are reforesting and connecting fragmented forests.

This is PPL's naturalist, Jon Beam, with the Nature Notebook for WVIA.