For a few weeks now the magpies have been showing their youngsters around the area and showing them where to get food and water and also where the dangers are and what they look like.
Although I have been woken up ridiculously early almost every morning while the flying lessons and aerobatics are taught, I don't really mind because I find something amusing and comforting about their 'clacking' call.
The magpies usually gets a bad press because they steal eggs and chicks from nests (and nestboxes - sorry, Emma) but you have to hand it to them as they are amongst the most fiesty and dedicated parents of the wild bird population in Britain.
Around here, the neighbourhood cats have all been marked out by these parents and if one is spotted, the alarm call goes up and both parents rush to try to get the cat as far away as possible from the youngster. They will use every ruse imaginable to distract the cats, acting as if their wing is broken, taunting and mocking, dive bombing, you name and they'll do it. I watched a pair this morning chase a cat up the road for over a hundred yards until the cat disappeared under a car. They only left it alone when another moggy crossed the road outside of my house which brought them back down the road in hot pursuit of their quarry.
While all this is going on, the parents are egged noisily on by the youngster who is sitting well out of harm's way on the roof!
I'm hoping that they will continue to come into the garden from time to time because I would really like to get a picture of one but they seem to be a bit shy when they see me.
Those magpies neighbors are characters for sure. They're certainly smart to do all that they do to keep their young safe.
ReplyDeleteWe have pesty starlings around here that have only recently moved into the area. They're noisy and aggressive creatures. I'm hoping they don't run the bluebirds off.
Did you know that starlings are also very dedicated parents and a gang of them will mob a cat. We don't get many of them here now because of the farming methods outside of the city.
ReplyDeleteWhen I moved here about twenty five years ago, great flocks of them would come in from the fields at night and do a most spectacular 'dance' over the station. There also used to be huge numbers a mile away in the city centre and they would roost on the Christmas lights that were strung across the roads. It was a good way to keep warm with heat from the bulbs.