Anticipating Spring

I’ve been watching a group of young magpies as they attempt to remove some astro-turf off a mound of freshly excavated dirt.

I don’t know whether they want to get at the dirt or they’re just being jerks :joy:

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Turns out just being jerks. They managed to expose some of the soil but went back to pecking at the green stuff. Then a funeral turned up.

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This is taking a dark turn.

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“I can’t help it – I always cry at funerals. What a waste!”

The impression I get from the magpies round here is that they fly like a bundle of old rags when you’re obviously watching them, but if you catch them when they don’t know anyone’s there they can be tremendously graceful.

The kites (milvus milvus) used to get caught eating roadkill – you’d see one fox or whatever, then two or three smaller lumps a bit further along the motorway. Then all of a sudden that stopped happening. One can posit several mechanisms, but it’s still a fascinating thing to observe.

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A buzzard of some sort flew over me while I fetching some stuff out of my car. It momentarily blotted out the sun and I thought, “This is it…” It was huge.

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