I have had some weird experiences on our Huon Valley farm over the years.
Today, while bent over to tend the vegie patch, a magpie crash-landed on my back.
I’ve been dive-bombed by magpies before but this felt a bit different.
Rather than fly off the magpie hopped onto a short fence just 2m away and stood there looking at me.
I politely told it off for being so cheeky as to attack me, and it just kept staring back.
So – as you do – I started warbling at it like I was a magpie.
It took a keen interest in this performance, and then – knock me over with a feather – it jumped down at my feet and started pecking around for insects.
I kneeled down and pushed bits of debris aside so it could grab worms, which it did, in some cases from my hand.
This went on for a couple of minutes, and I had to walk a few steps to find more debris and worms.
Then our bloody cat came along and started lining up the magpie as a prey item.
I hate cats, but that’s another story.
I shooed the cat away, but the magpie got a fright and jumped back on the fence.
Then a curious thing happened.
Two other magpies came flying in fast, very vocal too, and they started chasing my new mate.
They were extremely aggressive, and as the three flew off I felt that the tame magpie was going to be killed.
Perhaps it was someone’s handraised bird, and the other magpies knew it was odd?
Dunno, but I might have had a new mate around the farm if it wasn’t for the bloody cat.
Dunno what its story was, but I was sad to see the bird go.