Another patient - Sophie

While we were worrying about getting Butch to recover, Sophie Magpie started getting the sniffles. Unfortunately it seems to have developed into some kind of all-out flu, and she is also getting eye trouble too.

For two days we have tried to persuade her to go in the cage so we can take her to the vet, but instead Dimpy butcherbird, Monty and Mindy magpie, and some of the intruder butcherbirds went in one after the other and ate all the food (noisy miners and a currawong walked all over the trap to check it, but were scared to actually go in) whilst Sophie took to the mulberry tree and resolutely refused to come down. She knows it is intended for her, and sadly just can't bring herself to go in. So we have reluctantly decided we can't try any more. It is better that she stay on the ground and eat properly than stay in the tree, not eat, and not go in the cage.

But last thing before dusk today, I was privileged to witness the most remarkable thing. I suppose you all have heard, as I have, naturalists say that when a bird is injured "the other birds attack it". I suppose it must happen sometime somewhere, but today, when Sophie flew hungry up into her eucalypt tree, I saw Monty, who is not yet even one year old and is still in his kiddie's feathers, take a piece of food up to Sophie. She was irritable and probably felt too ill to eat, because she cawed at him angrily. But he kept on repeatedly nudging his beak full of food onto her cheek until she eventually turned and let him put it into her mouth. Remarkable as this is, it is even more impressive when one remembers that Sophie is a four-year-old adult who had chicks last year (who sadly died when a gale blew down the nest), and Monty is only ten months old. Sophie's bubs, had they lived, would be older than Monty by a month. Monty's twin sister Mindy and dad Maggie also took food up to Sophie, but I didn't see her take it. So it seems the whole family except Vicky (who we think may already have bubs in the nest and will be busy either sitting on the eggs or feeding hatchlings) is helping keep Sophie's strength up. If time alone (without vet medicine) can make her well, she'll be fed, it seems. We'll just have to trust to higher powers to keep her safe until she can fight off the infection.