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My New White-backed Magpie Friends

by Shirley Oelman

I have magpies that visit every now and then and would like to talk about them. 


They first came calling regularly in late July 2009.

 warbling magpies

  17Oct 09, 10:01am  Warbling so beautiful      

  

 

At first I ignored them, then, as they seemed so insistent I went out outside to check out the noise.

There were 5 to start with and the numbers dwindled to 2 from November. I threw out onto the ground minced steak, multi grain bread and some varieties of fruit & veg, plus crushed up biscuits. There is always 2 lots of water for them. One of the magpies loved grapes. The other one would not touch them. If I ignored their call one would come up to my front door and call, then stand and wait looking at the door. When I stepped out it (the darker, taller one) ran away a short distance until I called it and dropped food and then it came within 4 foot of me and ate. The light grey one always kept back and never came too close.

 


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Recent happenings

A quick update on recent events. Firstly Curly the one-eyed currawong is still with us, and he seems to be doing quite nicely feeding himself despite his severe handicap. However, i think he is no longer associating with the other currawongs, but has attached hiimself to Vicky Magpie's family. Whether they approve or not I don't know, but he comes and goes when they come and go. He has become a bit more nervous in coming down to get food from us, though.

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Spare The Cockatoos A Life Sentence

 

Caged cockatoos often suffer greatly and end up leading a life time of misery. caged-ckatoo

Wildlife carers Peter Richards and Gabrielle Friebe from the Long Grass Nature Refuge have rehabilitated cockatoos for over seven years (as well as many other species for 35 years).  In the interview below they explain the plight of the pet cockatoo and what one should do to give them a quality of life.

(To receive a free copy of  full article you can subscribe to the Wild Bird Talking ezine by entering your details in the box  on top of the left hand column.)    

In this interview you will learn about: 

-  the physical and emotional problems faced by pet cockatoos in cages   

-  the needs of pet cockatoos so they can have a more natural life   

-  essential ways in which to give pet cockatoos a quality of life   

-  elements of a balanced diet necessary for a healthy bird

-  keys to eliminate personality problems, have a better relatioship with your companion bird and a good friendship.

 

You can listen to the audio and view the pictures below.

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This year's Magpie babies

Our magpies have been late this year with their babies. We understand why for Vicky's family, because after Maggie's passing it was July before Vicky settled on a new husband, a magpie from a long way away called Bertie. They then took a while to settle in and for Bertie to get to know the local situation.

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Curly the One-eyed Currawong

Here is Curly, the one-eyed currawong. Curly and the winter currawong mob (maybe a hundred birds) left for greener pastures about four weeks ago, but I've been looking for curly in case he decided to stay for the summer.

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