My dear little magpies are proud parents, of two babies, I think. It's hard to see from the ground! They are fastidious workers, chasing food all day.

My son checked on the internet, and found that they do well on a mixed diet, and that dog food is good for them, so we bought a dog roll, and they have been feeding from our hands voraciously at times. (We don't feed them all the time. They need to eat other things, I think. But it has been so dry lately, that the insects aren't as abundant as they should be at this time of the year.)

The male was always very reluctant to eat from our hands, but he has dropped most of his nervousness now. They both walk into our laundry looking for us. We hear the little "tap tap" of their feet on the vinyl flooring.

And one crow has taken food from my hand twice. It was agonising! And the first time, it hit my hand hard in its nervousness to grab and run. I don't have enough time to really try to tame them, but I'll persist with the occasional feeding thing. These birds are SMART. They decided the magpies could beat them when no food was involved, so now they wait until the maggies have their beaks full, and they mug them! They steal their food and fly off. The magpies have clearly defined the no-fly area near their nest, and the crows have moved to the front of our house, but they go on raids occasionally. And at times the magpies allow it. They're probably too tired to argue. They are also having territorial disputes with another childless magpie pair at present.

One of the grey noisy miners has learned to catch tid bits I throw to him. He'd be around more but the magpies are obsessive with territory. I was really surprise he caught on so quicky. He's only a small bird, but he watched me one day, and the first time I threw food towards him, he swooped and caught it.

What a delight. I'll soon have visits from the baby magpies, and I'm sure they will be even tamer than their parents. And once the mad territorial thing is over, a lot more of the fabulous local birdlife will make its way back into my yard.

I sometimes try to imagine how intense God's delight must be when we approach Him, even tentatively, like the wild creatures, and the realisation makes me feel loved.

Summer is on its way in Australia while winter is on its way here in Canada, however, we are still enjoying summer like weather so far this Fall or Autumn as some call it.

I wonder if we can woo the birds to us next Spring.

__________________________
In His Love, Mercy & Grace

Daryl

There was this news item in the paper this week.
A local man who walks to work for exercise, cuts through the city cemetary.

This week he got hit on the back of the neck from behind. He spun around, hands in the air to protect himself from the next attack, only to see a whirr of black and white wings.......
I think he will be finding a different rout until nesting is over.

Zita

That reminds me of a movie many years ago called "The Birds" in which the birds were making organized attacks against a community in the USA.

I don't recall anything like that happening in North America.

__________________________
In His Love, Mercy & Grace

Daryl

Just testing. I'm having trouble with this topic, and I want to see if this message shows on my computer.

Greetings from Borneo, perhaps the closest place to bird watcher heaven! I live by a rice paddy and a jungle swath, so I get a few sightings alright. But I'm hesitant to post here, since these regional. Is it fair for me to post if you can't look them up in your books?

Post away, Ikan!

__________________________
In His Love, Mercy & Grace

Daryl

[This message has been edited by Daryl Fawcett (edited October 12, 2001).]

Well...I suppose a list of sightings is a start, but firstthe setting. We live in a semi-rural area, by an old paddy field very grown over. It was used last year by an old Malay gentleman farmer to raise his waterbuffalo, which dissappeared at the annual celebration of the sacrifice of Isaac that devote muslims celebrate. So there were a pair of Chinese egrets following him around. Now that he is gone, the White breasted waterhens hold sway.(Would it help to use latin names here?)Our thrill is the sighting of a male Crimson Sunbird[Aethopyga siparaja] on our window grill;there may be a nest of his in our A/C housing gap!!
This week I am planning to visit the christian natives (ex-headhunters)in the interior, where the ten species of Horn-bills still rule the jungle....pray for sightings...!

At last! I can see the missing posts. I couldn't read anything after September 14th for a while there, even my own post.

Ikan, I'm SO jealous of you! The local bird life in Jambu Forest sounds so exotic, and I know the colours of tropical birds are wonderful. I'll get back to this later, but I look forward to hearing more from you.

I'm still looking forward to hearing from you, Ikan. The birds in your area sound beautiful.

Zita, do your magpies attack, too? And how much smaller than the Oz magpies are they?

My dear little maggies lost a baby. It was big enough to fly - in fact its sibling was flying - but it went missing, and I'm certain a local cat could give us more details. The surviving baby is an on-going challenge to its frantic parents. When it's on the ground, the father drives it mad, pecking at its head and legs, jumping on it, and grabbing its feet with his, and tripping it, so it falls on the ground. I don't understand this behaviour. At other times he feeds it, and still attacks all other birds in the neighbourhood. But when feeding, he eats first, then takes what's left to the baby. The female is a shadow of her former self. She feeds the baby first, and only after it declines further food, does she eat a little herself. But she always keeps the last mouthful, following the baby for several minutes to ensure it really doesn't want more, before she will eat that last bit. While the male looks sleek and fat, the female is super thin. And she gets dirty, but doesn't seem to groom herself as well as the male. (Any of this sound familiar??)

The male crow continues to eat from my hand, but not every time. His anxiety is so high some days that he simply can't trust me, but if he comes close, I still feed him. On a few occasions he has eaten, not flown off, then taken food a second time. To me, this is a real triumph, especially when the magpies aren't around to set an example. If I call, and he can hear me, he flies down to my back porch every time. (Although some days the magpies will not allow this!)

And the exciting news is that the female crow is sitting on eggs. She's been there for more than a week, so it shouldn't be too many more days before babies arrive. The last breeding pair who adopted us hatched two babies (separate occasions). The first one was hit by a car. My son picked up the body to dispose of it, and they thought we'd killed it, of course, and were wary after that. However, with the second baby, they still brought it here. They were such eager parents that they stole another baby from somewhere - perhaps it was an orphan - and adopted it as well. But the babies didn't survive, sadly. Both died on the transformer located beside our house. During one of the regular "crow wars", the new - and young - pair took over the territory.

I used to have pets. Now I get more enjoyment out of watching God's creatures in the wild. The city is no place for them, but they eke out a living in spite of it. The magpie nest is still on the power pole. I wonder if they will use it again next year?