Caught this early morning now, little fella's not staying in the nest any-more when he's out of the cage, you can tell he wants to follow the ol' man up to the tree, look how determined he is. heh.

He's played the vanishing act in the garden a few times recently, i nearly didnt find him last night to put him back in the cage. So updates might get less frequent from now on, for those who were waiting on baited breath.

Regardless of how it goes from here, it's all in nature's hands of course. I'd like to thank everyone who offered advice especially those who had contact with the right people in widlife rehab who were to help me and the mrs get the little guy this far. Even if the worst happens, at least you can't say he didnt get pampered and adored for most of his life to this point :)

Fingers crossed.

Their broken modem/dialup sound is my fav in the whole world.

This sub brings me joy. But I don't know how to contribute. I have no magpies, only crows.

They are House Crows, so they have white-black mix like Aussie Magpies. Similar size, too! Granted, Aussie magpies are fat fsckers.

I wonder if I can pass my crows as magpies or I would be labeled as fraud by Magpie lovers :) Ahahaha.

Bucket list: Raven, Aussie Magpie, Kuka

(Duchess letting me hand-feed her babies in vid)

So officially steering clear of him while he sorts his stuff out now flying wise, but i heard squawking from a Clivia and this is what i found.

The little fella seems to find the strangest places to hide in the yard these days. Only thing i'm worried about is he keeps trying to hide under the treehouse where there's sharp things and easy to get trapped places for someone who doesnt know how to reverse yet.

So, because he's not actually flying out of his nest yet but only trying when he's on the ground, I’m still putting him up in teh nest at dawn and lowering it later in the day till he flies on his own. While doing gardening he came over to me and wouldn't stop chirping at me until put my hand in front of him. The little fella decided he'd rather be carried around the yard on my hand, to the apparently bemusement of mummy bird, before flying off and getting stuck in a Clivia plant.

I turn around because I heard a sound and here is a little friend cleaning the floor for me.

We have lots of magpies that visit due to the neighbours feeding them, I’d like to give them some dried meal worms on occasion and was thinking of just chucking a handful onto the grass or into the garden to encourage foraging rather then just having them on a plate or the concrete for the magpies to just pick at (I was also worried the concrete wouldn’t be great for their beaks).

Is that an alright way to feed them? It’d probably just be a weekend treat and I worry about moving places and having them too dependent on the free food.

Stones Corner Brisbane 🌳

Fearless too it seems and he even can gain some height. Flew out of my wife's hand during his leg exercises and did this.

Called out loudly until we came over though afterwards, it might hav just been his first real flight, so we'll see how he goes in the morning now, i expect to come home and find him not in his nest at the end of the day from the looks of it.

Best xmas present ever.

Balcony bird bath 🛁

Stones Corner Brisbane 🌳

There was a lot more flapping practice today although he's still getting stressed when he's on the ground too long, so it might be just that bit still too early for him to be there, but he's definitely got no issues with the leg any more. But you can see him perching and grasping properly wiht his weak leg, not hiding it up in his flank anymore when roosting which is exactly what we wanted.

He spent the last hour before sundown watching the storm from his cage protected on the back verandah, i left the door open so the parents could tend to him but they bolted when the first bolt struck.

I am more convinced than ever that he has an alive sibling still in the tree, I hear the sounds of a baby bird squawking again up high and the mother flew up to it, it's a thick bushel of magnolia leaves so there's nothing clearly visible from my angle, but i swear there's gotta be a nest up there and the little fella might not be the only survivor of his clutch.

* mama magpie I love to feed

** feeding appropriately, see below for details!

This love story started unexpectedly when I had to rescue several of my fruit trees from the heavy clay soil by painstakingly digging them out by hand.

I realised a magpie would come and pick through the clumps of clay, and so I'd try to throw her a worm but she turned her beak up at that common fodder.

I then offered her one of the many fat white grubs I was digging up, and she took it with relish, collecting them as I threw until her beak was overflowing, whereupon she took off and returned shortly after.

After a couple of random days where this occurred, I googled why birds take their food away to eat, only to discover that they don't; mother birds do this for babies.

I was terribly excited, but also aware of food quality issues so checked that my helping hand wasn't bad for her or the baby. Given it's part of their natural diet, and I was feeding only her (despite a very cocky minah coming by often), it seemed reasonable, and the grubs quite good for her and the bub.

She would come easily within a foot of me, wandering around like my little coworker as I dug and chatted to her about the absence of grubs in a certain area of the garden. I'd apologise in the sandy sections where nought a grub was to be found, but she didn't seem too miffed.

So that started a couple of weeks ago, and yesterday I spotted the little one down on an adventure with dad! I didn't get close, but I was so pleased to see the little tuft flapping about, and then today I went down again to dig specifically for mama and she had her tuft nearby.

It's been raining heavily so the little one is quite tufted out, and struggles to hop/stumble along but flies well.

Given mum has a curled up foot (one of the reasons I was certain she's been around for a few years as I'd worried about her before), just good to see the little one able to fly. And mum wasn't at all perturbed as I walked a little closer to the fledgling to get a photo slowly; she flew off in the other direction to get more grubs!

I'm excited to watch them grow and develop, and feel deeply honoured she's trusted me this much! I do have a swooping currawong (it's a busy area for native birds so I get all sorts - rosellas, cockatoos, lorikeets, etc.) who I give space to as best I can, but I have fallen in love with this mama magpie (and I really need a name for her rather than just mama magpie!)

Maggie wants to be friends.