Pied Butcherbird

Teddy and Tommy were one year's kids from our darling Butch and Cas pied butcherbird family. You may remember Butch got sick and we had to take her to the vet for treatment, and after she recovered, B&C left one of their eldest kids, Freddy, in their territory and 'went on a world cruise' - that is, they left the hard work of raising another family to their son Freddy.

Georgie Magpie has not returned. The day we last saw her, we were getting some help from a friend doing home renovations, so we couldn't pay as much attention as usual, and our magpies would have been wary of the presence of other humans, so it may be they were trying to tell us where Georgie was going but we weren't listening.

Our pied butcherbirds Freddy and Terry had a baby (Jerry) this season. He's a few months old now, but three days ago he disappeared. For such a young bird, the first concern when that happens is: has something bad happened to Jerry?

So soon after our beautiful Maggie's passing, we were naturally very worried and sad that Jerry had vanished. But today, three days after he vanished, there he was with mum and dad on the washing line in the back yard. So where was he?

Both Larry and Harrie grey butcherbirds and Freddy and Terry pied butcherbirds have brought their new chicks to see us this week. Larry came first with the noisiest bub this season, easily out-squarking all the magpie bubs, which takes some doing, because the grey butcherbirds are so very much smaller than the magpies.

Happy New Year to all! I've been a bit slack posting during December, partly because of all the diversions and partly due to having to chase after problems with our hosting service, which took a lot of time.