Magpie Dads can sit on the nest

Just a quick note to tell you about a remarkable thing that happened this morning.

Gitie was looking at Vicky's nest through the telescope. If you recall, it is a crow's nest that Maggie's family purchased last year from the crows, although it was still in use by the crows until this year. As such, it is much larger than normal magpies' nests and is much bigger than the babies strictly need. Vicky was down in our yard, along with Mindy. Then Gitie saw that a bird was coming out of the nest, and we saw a big bird emerge. It flew from the nest and came straight to our yard. It was Maggie. I can't recall ever reading anywhere that males will sit on the nest, but Maggie was. As always, the birds will show us, if we take the time to learn, that they are much more than instinctive beasts doing what is programmed. For whatever reason, Vicky was not there to keep the nest warm, so Dad did the job for a while. Just like people, they will think through their problems and take reasonable steps to handle them.

The babies, BTW, are getting bigger, but are still very much undeveloped. A long way to go yet before they are out of the nest.