Have a Sticky Beak: WPC Peek

Staring out the kitchen window this morning, something in our tallest tree caught my eye. Got the camera out to ‘have a sticky beak’ – Aussie slang for ‘have a look.’

A young Maggie preens itself.

 … then settles down for a branch snooze after a noisy morning. It’s been up since Dawn learning to carol and sing. Indigenous Peoples have called these birds Koorakoolas, Goorebats or Curlucks.

Shut-eye doesn’t last long.

An adult flies up. The young one squawks for food !

 Pa goes hunting!

Australian poet Judith Wright in her poem Magpies wrote

” they look like certain gentlemen

who seem most nonchalant and wise …

… their joy is long. For each is born with such a throat

as thanks his God with every note.

In my back garden, these magpies are content to amble. I followed Ma or Pa walking around till I got this last shot. They’ve never ‘dive-bombed” me like those magpies in parks, protecting their nests when people get too close.

Thank goodness for tall trees, singing birds and sticky beaks.

Peek

PS. I f you want to hear them ‘carolling,’ check out Youtube for videos of Australian Magpies. I might get up really early tomorrow and record them myself.

All text (except where noted) and photos by Meg. Story Twigs the Imagination! by Meg Philp is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License and also Copyright © under Australian Law.

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