Blogs

Last week we lost two of our pied butcherbird friends. Gerry started getting sick first, with what looked like the same problem we successfully cures his relative Butch from last year. His eyes crusted up and it became hard for him to see. Unlike Butch though, Gerry wasn't at all interested in getting caught and taken to the vet etc. So we had to feed him antibiotic-soaked bread as the only way to get some medicine in him.

Bertie (below), the new male magpie has successfully won Vicky's heart.

He is a big strong male with plumage patterns that are distincltly different from Maggie, but like Maggie he has a beautiful voice.

I told you about the male magpie Richie, who has been wooing Vicky since Maggie's passing. Well Tuesday morning, four birds (instead of three) landed to say hello to us. Vicky and her adult kids Mindy and Monty were there, as was a large handsome male magpie, all four loudly carolling out their territorial ownership. Who was the new male magpie?

Vicky's suitor, whom we are calling Ritchie, suffered the embarrassments I told you about last time, but it seems he hasn't been entirely crushed by it all. He's back again now trying his best to woo and win Vicky's heart.

Last week there was a new, nervous young male magpie paying us a visit. He was doing his best to show us he was brave and intelligent, and he came right up to our glass back door, and when we went outside, he would hold his ground and try to show how he was not going to be frightened, but equally he wanted to say hello and get to know the humans.