The State of the Magpies (Part 2)

I said I'd tell you about the "other" magpie we have here who is not in Maggie's family, but events have moved so fast they've overtaken my story.

The fellow I referred to last time is Billy. (You'll find his picture elsewhere on the site.) He's a younger adopted brother to Maggie, Maggie having been adopted into Billy's dad's family and made to work hard feeding baby Billy years ago. Billy is, or was, a one-thought bird: his stomach! His dad tried to find him a position with a magpie group across the valley, and probably other places we don't know about, but each time he came back. Eventually he was chased out and established a little group of four for himself further along the hillside. But after his dad and mum had both died, he muscled his way back into his father's old property. He has a good life for a bird who likes his food: our neighbours have a little dog, Ted, and he steals Ted's dinner. He lands on their verandah and gets fed by hand. He has a mate, Polly, who is more shy, but (miracle!) he actually takes food to her and gives it away! So Billy has grown up.

The only fly in Billy's ointment is that he doesn't own the magpie property he occupies. Now I know this will be met with disbelief, but I am quite sure that Billy's dad, when he died, bequeathed his lands to Maggie, who is as a result an absent landlord: he owns two territories, but only lives in one of them. There is a long story behind all that, and Gitie or I will tell it one day. Trust me, it isn't silly when you hear the evidence.

Anyway, the big event from Billy's corner is that our neighbour tells us he and Polly have had three or four (!!!) babies! We'll go over as soon as we can to try to see them for ourselves. Although Billy visits us when Maggie is not around (Maggie has the mojo over Billy and always chases him off without a fight), Polly is usually a bit nervous of coming to our place, and I am sure she won't bring her bubs near our house, so we'll have to go across the paddock to our friends' place if we want to meet them. Maybe when they are a fair bit older they might come up here.

Gitie has visited Maggie's and Vicky's trees again and got some up-close quality time with little Josie, who is a real darling. It is so soon after she came out of the nest, but Maggie is already letting her come down to the ground. She'll be a daddy's girl because Sophie and Vicky are both busy with their nests and Maggie is doing all the feeding of Josie.

Gitie also tells me that one of the young kookaburras is now approaching her and making friends. For all the years we have known Maggie, the kookies have been mostly aloof, but it seems they want to have their picture taken too.

Next time I'll tell you about the noisy miners and our other friends.