Trivial weekend musings not worth their own thread

[repentance]

Being nice to magpies pays off.

A couple of months ago a pair of magpies were regular visitors to my front door step, where they brazenly hopped around collecting stuff for their nest as I sat inches away.  Since then they've remained regular daytime visitors, often perching on the railing watching me have a cup of tea.  So I got into the habit of throwing food scraps out on to the lawn for them.

This morning when I got up there was a fledgling magpie in my front yard.  It looked so incapable and disoriented that at first I thought it was injured.  All day long its parents have been keeping careful watch over it and swooping anyone who so much as passes my front gate.  Except for me.  They apparently don't give a shit how close I get to it as I potter around my front yard - which is a very good thing as I don't particularly want to have to run the gauntlet every time I leave the house for the next few weeks.

I am a bit worried though as I haven't seen the fledging attempt to fly yet and there are a few neighbourhood cats which have a habit of coming into my yard of a night.  Part of me wants to bring it inside for the night even though I know that's the wrong thing to do.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

Two months ago, I moved a nest of four newly hatched sparrows so my crew could remove the upper floor. A month later (project was put on hold), I returned to the barn to restart the deconstruction process, and these four sparrows landed close by. After hanging around for a bit, they flew away. I want to believe they're the same birds.

Another time, there was this baby camel...(now, I'm just being silly)