bird behaviour

Can 'mere birds' hold conferences? It seems so. On Saturday, I drove down to the local shop and, on the way back, was startled to see twenty magpies (I counted them) approaching Maggie's territory from the southwest. The whole lot alighted on Maggie's 'main tree', which I could just see by looking upwards through the windscreen. (Yes, I did first stop the car!)

Our beautiful Sophie Magpie has passed away.

Yesterday afternoon, despite having shaken off the flu, Sophie still had her eye trouble, and after so long not feeding herself and only eating bread and cheese, was looking shaky on her legs. Also yesterday was, after a warm dry spell, both continuously raining and very cold. She also refused to come down from the bank (about four feet high) to our back yard for food, and we had to throw it up onto the bank for her.

Sophie Magpie is still sick, unfortunately. If you recall, she had the same eye trouble as Butch Butcherbird, but also had some sort of flu, shaking fluid from her face at intervals.