Vicky Magpie is sitting on her nest

Yesterday I looked out towards Vicky's area, and I saw her immediately drop from her nest and fly towards me. This is the first time this year she has used her nest. (She didn't build this one, she got it in a trade with a crow two years ago, so it is really tough and strong.)

It was only the day before that Vicky finally got rid of all trace of the eye trouble that killed two of her butcherbird friends. In light of the tragic results with the butherbirds, we really overdosed the antibiotic way above the instructions, but it seems to have done the trick. I think the problem is that instructions are written for caged birds. They say put so much in their water, and the caged birds drink all their water from the supply you give them; but wild birds drink lots of unmedicated water, so what you do manage to medicate must be overcharged to get the same total medication. Sometimes this trouble recurs, so we are not sure Vicky is out of the woods yet.

It is great to see Vicky on the nest and happy, but we are now worried that the antibiotic might have damaged her eggs. But we had to do it or she would have died like Gerry and Teddles. We'll just have to keep our fingers crossed and see what transpires.