Walked out the front door to have breakfast after my morning bike ride and a magpie flew down and sat on the hand rail. The baby maggie walked along the hand rail toward me and came to a stop at the upright and peered around the post looking at me. Then hopped down to the table and back up and again onto the opposite side of the post. Then I thought alright here’s a piece of toast and placed it a foot away from me. I didn’t look at the maggie, only out the corner of my eye until he finally grabbed the toast and promptly dropped it off the side into the garden bed. Where I had to fish it out with a tent pole until he could reach it from behind the plants.
Magpies are smarter than most people think. I was telling this story to a mate that does voluntary work for wildlife rescue and he told me that many people feed mince to wild birds.However the mince doesn’t have enough calcium in the meat and the birds beaks eventually break down. Your better off feeding them dog biscuits with a higher calcium content. The larger ones soaked in water. I saw a bin at the local supermarket for donations of pet food to the dog rescue in the town. I was going to grab a cheap bag of feed to place in there next shopping day but I think Ill grab a second bag for the magpies. Last night they flew down wanting to be fed. I hadn’t given them any left overs for two days and they seemed starved. They usually leave bread alone for the smaller birds but they actually fought over a few slices of bread. There’s been no rain in a few days maybe the worms and bugs have gone to ground.
Update 07 MAR
Brought the dog biscuits, $13 for a large bag of no brand name. Two bags one for the rescue donation bin and another for the birds. I tried throwing out a handful for a test but they were too hard and had to soak them.
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