I'm now up to 12 every morning, waiting in the tree off the deck for breakfast.
There's always an even number, which makes me think that they're paired up - although they're not particularly social (not like sparrows or other smaller birds) - each Jay has it's own branch, some farther back, some closer, and when the closer ones swoop in for the nut the farther ones take their place.
After a fashion, we're kind of getting to know each other. The first bowl of food, it's a free for all - at first - riots, fighting at the dish, now it seems an almost orderly flight down - one or two at a time, another 1 or 2 waiting on the rail, things go until the dish is empty.
At this point I change it up. When I go outside for a smoke I place one peanut on the rail, wait until a bold one decides to swoop in and pick it up, then replace it.
There's a variety of approaches - the birds - indistinguishable - but they do seem to have very distinct personalities.
There's a couple that will make swooping attempts to grab a nut, then abort at the last minute and swoop away. These will later follow the other, braver birds around the trees, presumably harassing them to give up their nuts.
There are the ones that swoop in - in one stroke - and grab the nut with their claws or beak and abscond with it without stopping. Others will land at the far end of the rail, hop half-way towards it, then jump over the nut to land on the other side of the rail, approach it again...
...this isn't a great strategy. Some other, more opportunistic bird will have beaten them to it before they finally get close enough to the prize.
Then there are those that land on the end of the rail, hop slowly (relatively, they're at best abrupt in their movements) towards the nut, then pick it up and look me over for 2 or 3 seconds before flying away.
In the intermission, between my replenishing the peanut there will be a wag that will land on the empty rail, hop over and pantomime looking for the non existent peanut.
One, having grabbed the nut and still with it in it's beak sees me lay out another, swoops back to the far end of the rail, sets his first nut down, hops over and takes the second nut (to the annoyance of another bird already on the wing towards it), then hops back to pick up the first nut, only to discover that he can't carry two at once.
Try laying down 3 or 4 nuts at a time and all of a sudden there appears the connoisseurs, that will pick up each nut, shake it a moment, set it down, test the next one, and so forth, until having tested them all they can seize the best one and fly away.
Now, all the while they've got me wondering "What are they thinking?". This is, of course, the wrong question, they don't think like us, not at all, they don't have language which we use largely to form our thoughts - or - whatever equivalent they have in birdsong is unlikely to be shaping their thoughts in the same ways ours are. But - still - try and get into their heads. One is vocal with loud scoldings and kaws as soon as I lay down the nut, as if it's trying to shoo me from the deck so he/she can dine in peace. Another might make low chirps and birdsongs/warbles to itself - no others in the tree, or within hearing range, as it waits for a nut, and it reminds me somewhat of a cheerful inner monologue, the bird is simply going over the joyful moment it gets it's nut, "anticipating" out loud, as it were.
And then there's the whole - "Do they know they're being fed?" - which - I would think, yes, of course, but then why the super-abundance of caution? There's only 12, you need a minimum of 4 and twenty for any sort of half-assed pie. And there is the fact that - even now, as I'm writing this at the computer, they're landing on the rail, looking for nuts that plainly aren't there, then staring at me through the window...An I simply a careless forager, who accidently leaves nuts on the rail and should be followed around? Or...?
Anyways, for the moment largely the most intelligent companionship I have, so I'll enjoy it while it lasts.