My Burra Family: Magpie Rescue

The other afternoon I arrived home after work, changed into civvies and settled down on the veranda, cold beer in hand, to enjoy that period when the sun starts to set & the water turns to glass. Everything is still except the chatter of the birds.

So here I am sitting there chatting to Button (she now visits me daily at this time), and I could hear my Pee Wees making a commotion and repeatedly flying behind the mangroves next door.

Now what caught their attention now had mine.

A bird was flapping in the water. I thought a Pee Wee that had tried to move into the territory had been driven into the water by my resident pair (Pernicious & Pedro).

However it happened, I had no choice. Unfortunately for me was where the bird was.

The mud here, you sink with each step. Now your shoeless foot sinks thru 18” of mud. Just to add to the experience & thanks to the local kids throwing ½ bricks and rocks at the ducks, it was like walking thru a mine field. With every step, as I sink thru the quagmire, I might hit one of these oyster covered gems.

So, GoPro mounted on head off I trudge. When I got closer I saw that it wasn’t a Pee Wee, but a Magpie that was caught up in fishing line, hanging upside down in the water.

Getting there without losing a toe, I was presented with a pissed off Magpie. Great, now the prospect of losing a finger.

OK, so he’s wrapped himself up in line that’s been strung between 2 mangroves.

The plan – cut line on far side of bird, drag bird to shore to untangle, pray don’t lose toe or finger in process.

Fault in the plan – well at this point there were 2 & they happened at the same time.

1^st/ Dragging 1 very pissed off & noisy bird 3’ or 4’ behind me and forgetting to cut the other end of the line.

2^nd/ when that pulled tight, I was in the middle of the mine field mid-stride. Here I was faced with 2 choices, lose a toe or possibly lose a wing. Self-preservation is a powerful instinct. Lucky for the bird neither of us lost an appendage. Neither reality were going to end well for the bird J

So back to terra firma, I could now take time and look at that I was faced with.

Seemed he had the line wrapped around this wing a number of times. My main concern was if he had broken his wing. What happened next amazed me. I laid him on his back & he just laid there. Letting me inspect him.

Now I believe that is a defence mechanism to play dead when predated on, but that’s not the case here. He was watching my every move.

So, successfully released from his bond, he still needed the wing looked at.

This is when things went a little pear shaped. He took umbrage at being man handled and proceed to tell me that, in no uncertain terms (I’m sure he didn’t miss any of my fingers, BTW, they bite way harder than a kookaburra).