🌰 Acorn tray creation & placement

When should you do this?

September–November, during the acorn ripening season, before the jays hide their winter stores

What will you need?

• A board, flat tray, or large shallow container with a raised rim (so the acorns can't roll off)
• A post, stake, or tree trunk to mount the tray about 1-1.5 m off the ground
• Screws, a drill, a saw
• Healthy, locally collected acorns from native oaks (pedunculate, sessile, or Turkey oak)
• A bucket of water for the float test
• Gloves and a collecting bag or bucket
• A small sign explaining the project to passers-by
• Optional: a small roof over the tray so rain doesn't soak the acorns

How to get started?

1. In autumn (September–October), collect freshly fallen, intact, brown acorns from healthy local oaks; in forests or protected areas, ask the owner or manager for permission.
2. Put the acorns in a bucket of water: discard any that float, are wormy, or are cracked — use only the ones that sink.
3. Pick a spot at the edge of a forest, tree group, hedgerow, or scrubland where jays already live (you hear their harsh calls, see them around the oaks) and where you'd like to see oaks grow. Ask the landowner for permission.
4. Mount the rimmed tray on a post or tree trunk about 1-1.5 m up, in a visible, open spot — jays reach it easily, but wild boar and rodents less so.
5. Put a small portion of acorns on the tray (about a handful to a small bowlful); not too many at once, so they don't spoil or attract rodents.
6. Watch the tray (from a distance, quietly): the jays soon turn up, grab the acorns, and fly off with them. If you see them, you're doing it right.
7. Top up the acorns now and then (every week or two) as the tray empties; remove any moldy or spoiled acorns.
8. Note how many acorns you put out and when, and if you can, observe where the birds take them — in spring, look around the area for sprouted oak seedlings.

Useful tips

• Always use local, native oaks — the American red oak (Quercus rubra) is non-native and invasive, so don't collect its acorns.
• The best spot is where jays are already present and where there's land nearby that could use an oak forest (pasture edge, clear-cut, neglected grassland, forest margin).
• Don't load the tray with too many acorns at once: it's better to top up often in small portions, so the birds carry them off before they spoil or rodents find them.
• Jays can bury thousands of acorns in one autumn and never find many of them again — that's exactly what makes this method work.
• Ask schools and nature conservation groups to collect the acorns and tend the trays together — it makes a great environmental education program and a good chance for birdwatching.