Australian magpie plays with a canine friend

I loved this clip that a friend sent me, of a dog and a magpie playing together It reminded me of some photos I took years ago of magpies in a local park. It sure looked to me like they were playing, or perhaps the parents were 'disciplining' the baby.

I assumed the grey-backed birds were younglings, and the white-backed ones were adults (though I'm not sure about that). It's interesting that it was not always the baby who was upside-down. Looking around the internet for information about whether Australian magpies do indeed play, I came across this hilarious site. Here's a photo of two youngsters playing while an adult keeps watch.

wandering the laneways with a dog

Penny and I often walk along the local laneways, enjoying the quiet pace of life off the main roads.



A few days ago we decided to explore some of the laneways that have not been "developed" as walking tracks, the ones that are mostly unused.





I suspect it's the existence of these often overgrown, hidden tracks that explain why our area is Snake Central! I'll be on the alert once more from October to May, and we won't be wandering so carelessly up these lanes. Also, I think there must be a population of foxes roaming them, too, to judge by the number of animal bodies we came across as we walked.

I think the first one was a ring-tailed possum.



Then we saw two dead birds - magpies, I think.




It's sad to see these dead bodies, but I guess they are part of the cycle of nature. Certainly, their bodies were decaying into the soil, and it seemed as if something had eaten them away.

But it was good to see a live magpie. And even though it's still the middle of winter, this bird was building its nest, so we'll be looking out for swooping magpies in the future.