Magpie

Our beautiful Sophie Magpie has passed away.

Yesterday afternoon, despite having shaken off the flu, Sophie still had her eye trouble, and after so long not feeding herself and only eating bread and cheese, was looking shaky on her legs. Also yesterday was, after a warm dry spell, both continuously raining and very cold. She also refused to come down from the bank (about four feet high) to our back yard for food, and we had to throw it up onto the bank for her.

Sophie Magpie is still sick, unfortunately. If you recall, she had the same eye trouble as Butch Butcherbird, but also had some sort of flu, shaking fluid from her face at intervals.

Saturday morning I was at the front gate chatting to Vicky Magpie when the noisy miners let out an almighty screech. Looking up, I saw a huge wedgetailed eagle wheeling overhead. Vicky went very still, and watched the eagle intently. But then the eagle started to glide away out over the valley, away from our magpies' territory. Then I saw why!

Our butcherbird group (Butch and Cas are still AWOL) now consists of Dimpy, 3y.o., and Kerry (2y.o.) and two new birds. One seems to be from the intruder group who has changed groups, and we are calling him Terry, and one other who knows us so well we think it must be someone we knew years ago. Dimpy's older brothers, Teddy and Tommy, and his still-older brothers, Eddy and Freddy, are out there somewhere, and maybe this is one of them. The trouble is it's extremely hard to tell butcherbirds apart. Magpies are hard enough, but butcherbirds look almost identical to human eyes.