We’ve had a temporary additional member to the household.
Last weekend I noticed a rather scruffy and bedraggled magpie on the patio. We get a lot of magpies in the garden, but they rarely get this close to the house (what with dogs and cats to contend with). A little while later I noticed it sheltering on the brick “BBQ” by the back door, and I decided it was clearly unwell.
Being a softy, I carefully prepared a bowl of cat food, grapes and a fat ball, and took it outside. The magpie fluttered to the ground and sort of fell off the patio, legging it to hide at the back of the rockery. I placed the carefully prepared feast on the ground at the bottom of the steps, and did a cat count to check they were all indoors. An hour or so later the cat food had all disappeared, and the magpie was back behind the rockery. I topped up the bowl, left it near the rockery together with a small tray of water, and forgot about it until Chantal had a “where is the cat bowl?” conversation later. The cat food had gone, as indeed had the magpie, hopefully feeling better with a full tummy.
Yesterday Chantal spotted the magpie on the lawn. Inca also spotted the magpie on the lawn. The Magpie, apparently still unable to fly, hopped and shuffled across the lawn, hotly pursued by a limping Inca, with her gammy front leg, who in turn was chased by Chantal, never the quickest runner. The magpie promptly fell into the pond, and Inca stood on the edge, deciding whether the prey was worth a swim. Chas grabbed the cat, but quickly realised that she couldn’t be a lifeguard and cat guard at the same time, and so rushed back to the house to deposit Inca behind closed doors, returning to find the magpie coming up for air for what may have been the last time. She scooped it up from the tangle of pond weed – as far as I know mouth-to-beak resuscitation was not required.
Chantal wrapped the bird, which by now seemed quite stoical to take whatever fate had in store, in a towel, and deposited the whole mess into the (empty) bath while she went up into the loft to bring down a cat basket.
By the time that I got home that evening, the magpie had been happily relaxing on a heated mat in a cat basket, next to a warm radiator (the central heating was turned on specially) while occasionally helping itself to more cat food from a cat bowl. Since the bird seemed able to process the cat food remarkably quickly the heated mat had been replaced by a more washable cat blanket.
Chas was unsuccessful in contacting a local bird rescue centre, despite leaving a message and e-mailing the above photo with a request for advice. By this lunchtime the magpie was considerably perkier, and so was released back behind the rockery. The open cat basket is also there, with cat food included, so it has a nice little shelter. I don’t think that it has an electric blanket to sleep on.
We will be keeping an eye out for it.
Technically we live in Oaktree House, but sadly the tree had to go.
We now have a thriving Oakstump at the front of the house.
