bird behaviour

Teddy and Tommy were one year's kids from our darling Butch and Cas pied butcherbird family. You may remember Butch got sick and we had to take her to the vet for treatment, and after she recovered, B&C left one of their eldest kids, Freddy, in their territory and 'went on a world cruise' - that is, they left the hard work of raising another family to their son Freddy.

Georgie Magpie has not returned. The day we last saw her, we were getting some help from a friend doing home renovations, so we couldn't pay as much attention as usual, and our magpies would have been wary of the presence of other humans, so it may be they were trying to tell us where Georgie was going but we weren't listening.

Vicky Magpie and the family have stayed together since Maggie's passing, and they are doing well in getting their act together for the new season.

Vicky has changed her appearance quite dramatically. It almost gives the appearance that she has tried to get rid of her 'middle-age spread' and put on an attractive show - presumably in case there are any eligible males out there that she might take a fancy to. Mindy and Monty have become very beautiful adults, and young Georgie is doing fine.

Since our Maggie died, we have been very concerned that his family might be driven from their territory. One keeps on hearing stories about that from all over. But nothing of the sort has happened. In fact, there has been one development that has astounded me.

Suddenly we only seem to have one crow living in our vicinity. Until December we had something like 20 or 30.

We have had many, many crows for many, many years - as long as we have known our darling Maggie, in fact. Yet now, just as Maggie became ill, the crows have all departed for other pastures, at least for now.