My Friend 'Pie

So, I started feeding the magpies at work occasionally this Winter, because it was sooo much colder than we are used to... It was only an occasional thing, because if they were not around then some other less nervy bird would spot it, like a crow, or jackdaw or gull, and grab it.

There is no way I want to be responsible for attracting a flocl of gulls to work on a regular basis. Locally, Gulls can be a nuisance. If people feed them, they tend to nest nearby and then they attack people. They are also exceedingly messy.... People who feed Gulls are very much disliked by their neighbours...

So my magpie feeding was an occasional thing, with them anxiously hopping around at the top of the grassy bank, hoping I could throw far enough for them to get it before some other bird got it. i didn't feed them very often but just recently I have noticed a huge change in their behaviour towards me.

One magpie now comes and sits by my car, no more than two metres away and waits for me to feed him. He will come as close as a metre now, as long as I don't look directly at him, I have to do a kind of sideways look and if I look too directly he will freeze or hop backwards. Not that he doesn't know I am watching, of course he does....

Yesterday he had half a corn cake he came and sat by my car so many times.... They are apparently believed to be one of the most intelligent of animals. This one certainly figured out pretty quickly how to get food from me, that I had no intention of harming it and what I and my car look like exactly. He never sits by any other car and I know he clocks me walking to my car too....

From what I have read so far males are much bolder than females. I see his mate to, she stalks the bank, hunting for food, but she does not come to be fed.... They are lucky magpies to have someone who feeds them in their territory. Magpies are generally not so very popular.... I loe them though.....