If you’ve been following this blog a while you’ll know that our mate Toothless Johnno earned his nickname when, while eating his lunch he broke a tooth. Placing the broken false tooth on the picnic table he continued munching his roll. To ruin his day completely an opportunistic wattle bird swooped down and devoured the tooth. I guess that’s what you call ‘one fell swoop’.
While camped at Whorouly in North East Victoria, we were visited by a family of friendly magpies who greeted us every morning with a tuneful chorus. We tend to work on the theory that magpies have extremely long memories (supposedly about 20 years and obviously a better memory for faces than I’ve got) and won’t attack people who are nice to them. Thus, we greet every magpie with a smile and a cheery “Hello Maggie”.
Toothless on the other hand, reckons they swoop him when he’s cycling. And is it any wonder, when your magpie greeting is a loud “Piss off ya bloody vermin!”?


Our swooping thieves are starlings
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I’m with you, we also always greet them them with a cherry, “hello Maggie”, and if we have Mr Tilly with us, we offer them a dog treat (not good for them I know, but they never refuse). They’re always, always pleased to see us, even if it’s months since we’ve been their way.
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That helmet is sure a life-saver!
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Ouch. Yeah apparently magpies remember if you’ve fed them. 😊
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Aha they will remember us then.
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