Magpie, feathery king of the world

For whatever reason, I seem to live a very bird-friendly area. Doves, red kites, gulls, crows, swallows, robins, blackbirds....the list goes on. But my favourites are the magpies I occasionally see strutting around the lawn outside my building in a pleased-with-themselves way. I think they look rather fine in their black and white feathery cloaks. This afternoon, after trying and failing to get a decent shot of the red kite on patrol for the 113th time, I spotted one of the local magpies perched right on the top of my neighbour Ashley's chimney. Surveying his kingdom!