MISTER MAGPIE
He patrolled her yard as if it was his own. From out of nowhere, he would swoop down and scare off the other birds who tried to come in. Just as they landed, the magpie would confront them and within seconds, they were gone. One by one, they all vanished until there was no one else allowed in except a few pigeons and a couple of squirrels. Every once in a while, a very small sparrow would arrive unnoticed and have a few minutes in her garden, but it could never stay long either.
Kate watched all this from her kitchen window but couldn’t understand what was happening. She had lived there for years, and there were always a lot of birds around in the past. She didn’t know some of their names but could recognize them by their color and their patterns, especially in the winter when they stood out next to the snow. But now in the middle of spring when this should be their favorite garden, there was only one magpie and two pigeons. Where did the rest of them disappear to, and when did it happen?
The more she watched the magpie, the more Kate began to suspect he was the culprit. At first, she was fairly amused by his antics because he seemed so human-like. Brazen, bossy and cocky but clever and always interested in everything new in her garden. The day she planted a sunflower, Kate caught him going up to it soon after and examining it closely. She laughed watching him standing there for the longest time just cocking his head back and forth as he scanned it from top to bottom. He looked as if he didn’t approve and seemed almost irritated or insulted that she planted it without consulting him first. Why would he care about a sunflower, she wondered.
Then one day she happened to glance out the bedroom window in the front of the house and noticed Mister Magpie with two other magpies that were much smaller. That’s when she realized how much larger Mister Magpie was, and maybe she was crazy, but it looked to her as if they were having a meeting. Standing in a circle facing each other, it appeared that Mister Magpie was the boss and the two smaller ones were his assistants. This went on for a few minutes until Mister Magpie suddenly flew to the top of Kate’s highest hedge at the same time his assistants flew toward the backyard. How extraordinary, Kate thought, and when she returned to the kitchen window soon after she saw the smaller magpies on each side of her backyard, walking up and down as if they were security police or border patrols.
It was also in spring that Kate began observing Mister Magpie disappearing into the hedges for long periods of time. Sometimes he would take one of his assistants in with him and neither would emerge for at least an hour or more. So intrigued by this odd behavior, Kate decided to get closer and see what they were up to. The first time she peeked into the hedge, all she could hear was a lot of chirping sounds and the rustling of feathers. It sounded like they were attacking something, but she couldn’t really see too much. But two days later, she watched them enter the same hedge again … and this time she decided to approach from behind. Maneuvering herself in such a way so she could see them from the front, she was disturbed by what she saw. There was a nest in there, and they were attacking a baby bird that looked like a finch. It was all alone, and both magpies were holding it down. The baby was making a beeping sound underneath, and Kate felt desperate to help it. She started yelling at the magpies, but they just kept ignoring her. Determined to stop them, she looked around the yard and finally found a long stick to attack them with. It took several jabs, but she eventually got them to get off the baby and depart. Not knowing what else she could do to help the baby bird, she decided to leave it alone and prayed its mother would come back soon. Still shaking from what she witnessed, Kate headed straight back to call the local bird sanctuary and ask if they knew how to get rid of magpies. But before she made the call, she decided to go online first and research whatever she could find on the topic of pedophile birds.
Copyright © 2015 (Michelle Parsons, Getting Back on Your Path). All Rights Reserved.