WingedHearts.org More love than you thought possible

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.

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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:

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The rains have broken the drought.  Crested pigeons and Noisy Miners share a drink at the lilypot while the other birds and animals enjoy the fresh grass, new shoots and a greeener summer.

The pictures tell a better story. read more »

The birds love us visiting their patch to look at their nests and catch a glimpse of their chicks.  Most of the time, their nests are too high up in the trees for us to get a look inside.  But once the babes are bigger and peer over the edge, we can introduce ourselves.  Sometimes the chicks even call us and stand up to show themselves.  Maggie and Vicky have always proudly shown us their nests and babes.  Larry and Harrie, the grey butcherbirds too.  read more »

Minnie was the first Noisy Miner to initiate a conversation with us. Noisy Miners are one of the commonest flock birds in eastern Australia. Some folks call them 'mickey birds'.  We call ours 'Minnie birds' as umpteen generations of Minnie's kids have grown up in our yard and delighted us with their play, song and interaction with the magpies, butcherbirds and others.  read more »

The birds love having a few short naps during the day.  We call them 'trancing' because they look like they have gone into a trance.  In this slideshow we catch Dimpy the pied-butcherbird go off into a trance with Renuthri his Noisy-miner friend and other noisy-miner cousins keeping watch around him. read more »

Good old friends Maggie and Minnie have shared many adventures from the beginning.  Maggie always left some food for Minnie and Minnie would always fetch Maggie.  A true friend to the end, Minnie sat on the cage, encouraging Maggie to enter and let us help him, when he fell sick in his last days.

The pictures below are from the days of prolonged drought and show Maggie, Kerry (butcherbird) and Minnie walking, drinking and sharing their lives together. read more »

Maggie Magpie and Minnie Noisy-miner are long time friends.  Here they enjoy a drink together.   Maggie's daughter Sparky ( two years old)  also want to join them while her juvenile sister Wendy waits her turn. read more »

What's that loud rustling of leaves under the frangipani tree?  The miners are screeching and the butcherbirds sound like they are gargling!  The sound of a plastic bowl tipping over reaches us as we run to the front door just in time to catch a glimpse of the majestic creature searching for water.  Yes, it's a goanna.  He catches sight of us from the corner of his eye and rushes across the lawn, with the birds close behind giving chase and alerting the rest of the community of his w read more »

Did you know that baby birds of different species play games together? read more »