Wildlife Wednesday: Happy Winter Solstice!
It’s the longest night of the year, and that means many birds have migrated south by now. But blue jays often stick around for the winter. Blue jays are champion hoarders: Acorns are one of their favorite foods, and they're known to gather and stash them for feeding later on. One study tracked individual blue jays caching 3,000 to 5,000 acorns in a single autumn! But sometimes they can't eat them all—and their acorn burying may have helped spread oak trees since the end of the last major Ice Age. (Photo: Karen McDonald)