My neighbor on the lake, Kevin, likes
magpies.
I like them.
They are an intelligent bird. Magpies even stick around during our long
winters, which says a lot about how tough and industrious they are. Additionally, they eat a lot of rodents and
insects we consider pests.
Last week, Kevin set an aluminum pie
pan heaped with beef suet out on his lawn for the local magpies to feast
on. He enjoys watching the birds flying
in, wobbling around the pan, and pestering one another. A day or so later, he set out another pan filled
with suet. Not long after the birds swept
in and cleared the aluminum pan, a brisk wind tossed the pan across his yard and
pinned it against the fence.
Oddly enough, the next morning Kevin
found the pan back where he had set it out for the birds.
He fed the birds more suet in the pie
pan a few days later. Not long after the
birds finished with that meal, the wind once again flung the pan across the
yard. Shortly thereafter, Kevin saw one
of the magpies dragging the pan back to the place where Kevin feeds them suet.
This trick has been repeated several
times since then.
-- Mitchell
Hegman
PHOTO: Pixabay
Sharp birds! Doesn't take them long to get used to conditioning.
ReplyDeleteThey have it going on. They are fun to watch.
ReplyDelete