White-Backed Magpie

Gymnorhina _tibicen

Magpies were introduced from Australia in the late 1800s.  They have an amazing song, very loud and piping.  The grey in this one's back indicates a female.  They are 42cm (17in) in length.

These birds are not welcome in my garden.  They live in the tall firs and there is an uneasy truce between us.  What I don't like about them is that they frighten away smaller birds, especially the little natives.  In spring they bring their chicks close to the house and treat the hedge as a take-away bar.  There may be up to six nests of four different species of small birds, and  if I'm not there to stop them the parent magpies steal the the wee chicks and feed them to their own chick.

The mewling of the magpie chick is a horror sound to me.  I have two blocks of wood that I bash together to scare them away.  They know I'm not to be messed with and fly away when I go outside.  I thought I would never get close enough to get a photo, but captured this through a window this morning.

A lot of people regard magpies as a pest.  Apart from robbing nests they protect their territories by dive-bombing people and animals that come too close.  That huge beak can inflict quite an injury.  But whenever there's a call to have them eradicated and equal lobby springs to their defence.  Some people just love them and think the sacrifice of native birds is worth it to keep them.  I blame Denis Glover and the poem we all learned at school (see below).

It's Mothers' Day today.  I was given a chainsaw to replace my old faithful McCulloch that died last weekend. I'm delighted.  Since wood merchants don't sell logs to fit my stove I have to cut most of the logs in two.  A hand saw is out of the question for me.

The Magpies

by Denis Glover

When Tom and Elizabeth took the farm
The bracken made their bed
and Quardle oodle ardle wardle doodle
The magpies said

Tom's hand was strong to the plough
and Elizabeth's lips were red
and Quardle oodle ardle wardle doodle
The magpies said

Year in year out they worked
while the pines grew overhead
and Quardle oodle ardle wardle doodle
The magpies said

But all the beautiful crops soon went
to the mortgage man instead
and Quardle oodle ardle wardle doodle
The magpies said

Elizabeth is dead now (it's long ago)
Old Tom's gone light in the head
and Quardle oodle ardle wardle doodle?
The magpies said

The farms still there. Mortgage corporations
couldn't give it away
and Quardle oodle ardle wardle doodle
The magpies say.