Murder

The female bluebird was murdered.

For the better part of a week, a magpie has been stalking around the bluebird nesting box in front of my house.  I shooed the magpie away several times.  Early in the evening on the night before last, I looked out and spotted the magpie clinging to the front of the birdbox and poking around the entry hole.

I rushed out the front door, yelling, and chased the magpie off.

Upon reaching the box, I found the female bluebird nearly decapitated.  Her head was hanging by a strand outside the box.  Her lifeless body remained inside the box atop the nest.

The bluebird had been dead for no more than a minute.  From what I could tell, the magpie ambushed her from atop the box when she poked her head out.

I removed the bird from the box, wrapped her up in plastic, and unceremoniously placed her at the bottom of my trash bin in my garage.

The male bluebird orbited around the birdbox for about fifteen minutes and then vanished.

Yesterday morning, I removed five eggs from the nest inside the box.  I stood there staring at the eggs for some time.  What to do with those?  They were cold as a stone now.

Fucking magpie.

I walked the eggs a distance down what we call Big Tire Gulch and placed them in a conspicuous place.  Their mother went unceremoniously.  The eggs go out shouting.

Five Eggs

—Mitchell Hegman