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Driving to work this morning Ron saw a small bird walking awkwardly on the road, desperately trying to get away from a crow, while two of its friends who were trying their best to distract the crow were having no impact.  Ron stopped the car and picked up the bird.  He or she could not fly and it was hard to tell whether it was permanently injured.  The bird was so happy to be picked up and Ron felt he certainly didn't want to be eaten by the crow.  By the time Ron turned the car around and brought him home, holding him gently in his hand, the bird looked very comfortable, snug and warm in

The other day on the news there was a child who was attacked by a magpie, and tragically his eye was damaged. He was an amazing kid: the reporter asked him whose fault it was and he said Dad's, because dad forgot to tell him not to ride his bike in the magpie season. I wondered why it was only dad and not mum, but apart from that, it's a pretty wise way to look on life. But what I wanted to think about today was whether anything positive can be done to improve the sometimes poor relations between people and magpies.

I mentioned a while back that our neighbour's magpies, Billy and Polly, had had three or four bubs, and then I said I hadn't seen them around. Today Billy came down to see us after Maggie had gone off to his back paddock, and he stacked his beak and flew into the tree, where there were two bubs waiting. Good old Billy, who couldn't think about anything but his own stomach for years and who gave his poor old dad (now departed) apoplexy trying to get him to behave like a decent magpie, is now dutifully fathering his own kids. Good on you Billy!

Since meeting Maggie I have never ceased to be amazed by how well the birds understand each other from different species, and how that understanding even extends to humans. We learned early on that they understood the concept of names.

The inaugural edition of the Wild Bird Talking ezine will be issued on 30 Nov.   The issue features contributions from:

-   Christine Agro, host of Conscious Animal Radio ;
-   Brian Taylor, bestselling author of true Australian stories from the outback;
-   Mary Bailey,  an Aussie backyard bird lover;
-   Feature - Improving Cohabitation with magpies during breeding season

plus   ... DVD reviews, and more. 

Coming in the Next Issue: