WingedHearts.org More love than you thought possible

Our magpies have been late this year with their babies. We understand why for Vicky's family, because after Maggie's passing it was July before Vicky settled on a new husband, a magpie from a long way away called Bertie. They then took a while to settle in and for Bertie to get to know the local situation. (We know Bertie is not a local magpie because he has a radically different pattern on his back than any birds we have seen, even as far as 120km away in Brisbane.) But our neighbour's magpies Billy and Polly are also late, then finally, ten days ago, a little bub landed in our yard squarking loudly (as all Billy's kids tend to do) demanding his share of the pickings on offer. read more »

Here is Curly, the one-eyed currawong. Curly and the winter currawong mob (maybe a hundred birds) left for greener pastures about four weeks ago, but I've been looking for curly in case he decided to stay for the summer. read more »

Vicky and her new fellow, Bertie, have settled in and Vicky is now tending her nest. We are not sure whether she has hatched eggs, and we haven't been able to bring out our telescope due to the excessive wind and the big dust storms, which have been reported around the world. (We have to put the telescope in our breakfast room with the door wide open.) read more »

Vicky, Bertie, and Mindy are having trouble right now visiting our yard because the 'teenage' magpie crew think they own our front yard. I suspect this is only temporary because Bertie will eventually take charge and reclaim their territory. But for now, Vicky is nesting and, I suspect, is also is ambivalent about being stern with the teenage gang because her only son Monty is a member of it. So we have been walking along the road each day to say hello to Vicky's family and give them some bread and cheese. But yesterday when I went, something odd was going on.

I called the gang, but things were strangely quiet. Then I heard a horse's neigh - coming from above me. I looked up and there was Mindy, who promptly produced another neigh to make sure I didn't mistake who was imitating a horse. Why? Good question, but then Bertie explained it all to me in a way that was both unmistakeable and remarkable. read more »

Sorry to be posting a 'downer', but I think everyone needs to be aware of the horrible consequences of installing wind turbines. These machines look peaceful, but they are terrible killers.

 read more »

Our queen Vicky magpie has been free of flu symptoms for a week now, so we are cautiously optimistic that she has beaten the illness that took our pied butcherbirds Gerry and Teddles. But the visits to the nest seem to have been a flase alarm; no one has been sitting on any eggs this week as far as we can tell. So we took a walk up the road yesterday and asked our magpies what's up this year.

 read more »

Yesterday I looked out towards Vicky's area, and I saw her immediately drop from her nest and fly towards me. This is the first time this year she has used her nest. (She didn't build this one, she got it in a trade with a crow two years ago, so it is really tough and strong.) read more »

As our beautiful queen magpie Vicky is not feeling well right now, I decided to go and visit her. I walked along the road and spotted her in a tree in our side paddock. I called out hello, and took one step off the road towards the fence. Suddenly, I was confronted by one of our noisy miner friends, screaming loudly at me and looking down:

 read more »

Last week we lost two of our pied butcherbird friends. Gerry started getting sick first, with what looked like the same problem we successfully cures his relative Butch from last year. His eyes crusted up and it became hard for him to see. Unlike Butch though, Gerry wasn't at all interested in getting caught and taken to the vet etc. So we had to feed him antibiotic-soaked bread as the only way to get some medicine in him. read more »