Last year we had this really scruffy magpie in our garden , even though my husband does not particularly like magpies he was so comical & you could tell he was not doing well. We fed him extra to get him going & he picked up from this thin tatty bird into quite a fluffy chap. We could always tell which he was as he always made a mess of his landings & always had his head cocked to one side. Well this year he is still here as he doesn't go far away,but now we see him at the front of the house on the side of the valley & we often see him sat there in a tree. He now has a mate & he is trying to build a nest for her. They disagree about which tree they are building it in & my husband has been watching him for weeks trying to get a 14" twig in situ for the start of the nest, But try as he might it is always too big & he ends up hissing as he get more bad tempered. I fear he might never have his own brood to rear but perhaps nature didn't intend to let him.
I'll bet that in just a short time you will be admiring darling Pica pica nestlings.
Well, the nestlings probably won't be darling, but you know what I mean!
Oddly, the Common Magpie is the same bird in the US as in the UK. There aren't many birds which are common to both places (which are native, that is), but the magpie is one.
Kingfisher
Well , he's manage to make a nest in a hawthorn tree , we think!! He eventually abandoned the sycamore that his mate didn't like ,so watch this space .....
Let's see, how long does it take for those hatchlings to appear...?
Kingfisher
Update on the brain damaged magpie. He is still sat in the tree & we have not seen his mate for a while. So hopefully she is sat on her eggs that is, if she is still with him & not got fed up.
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He looks quite handsome sitting in the tree, I am surprised that some young female magpie has not taken him up on his nest offer
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Kingfisher
Just to let everyone know , our magpie brought his fledgeling to show off today. He only appeared with one , but a nice looking one at that, dad looked quite proud...........
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Not bad for a brain damaged magpie .................
There's hope for the world yet, if even a crazy magpie can manage to find a mate!
Kingfisher
I was just thinking about a bird story from when I was a bit younger! It was one of my strongest wildlife memories from my youth so I thought I'd share it.
I was out walking with my parents in the local fields near a lake, and we came across literally hundreds of geese resting in a field. We watched them for a while and it was amazing to see the huge numbers of them. Before long my younger brother unfortunately got a bit impatient and decided to run right into the middle of them. It wasn't a nice thing to do, but the site of hundreds of birds taking off together and flying off in a group was brilliant. I wish I had taken a photo, we didn't have digital back then though!
Xeract, that conujures up images of those mass take-offs of flamingoes in Africa that we see on TV! Nice story though.
Skip saw our brain damaged maggie today & wasn't convinced his 'son' has grown up the same. As he was looking for a worm in the gutter on a house opposite & nearly fell off, not once, but TWICE........Is there any hope???????
It wasn't quite as spectacular as flamingos but still pretty spectacular!
There is no hope for your magpie, its a wonder he gets by at all!
This morning Skip felt a laugh coming on when the sprog fell down the roof opp m,after trying to get presumable worms from the gutter. (Good start to the day) Not only once but TWICE , so he said the sprog might be brain damaged as well... AgHHHH , well he is cute... like his dad.. who said it wasn't hereditary?????
Keep the cats away from them!
I saw a scruffy magpie outside my work window then realised he had a damaged foot poor little thing. Really makes me wonder why I am spending my life sat in an office ruining my eyesight and being unfit. I really don't want to retire knowing that I have spent my whole life doing something i was not interested in and not in the slightest bit useful. Whenever i see or hear of a poorly animal I think of that. If only I had the experience and qualifications to change my job..... I would rather live off a shoestring and be happy knowing I was doing something useful (like wildlife saving/gardeneing/doing something green) then work for a decent wage condeming myself to 37.5 hours a week in an office (especially as my office has bars and razorwire on the window to keep burgulars out (or is it to keep me in?))
Sorry ranting!
Glad to know the magpies are doing well are doing well!
We feel like you also & if we were in that position then we would thank our lucky stars!!!!!
Thanks