Maggie vs Cockies

We had a show-down here the other day between one magpies and half-a-dozen sulphur-crested cockatoos. The cockatoos won the battle, but not the war.

It started innocently enough. The family of magpies that calls this spot home have been gradually getting used to us and, although we decided we will not feed them regularly, it is hard to throw away wrinkled apples and such when you know that the magpies and the ravens and the cockatoos etc etc will make short work of them.

And, since the maggies have been getting the occasional left-over (burnt rice seems to be a favourite), they are now keeping a closer eye on us. So when I saw a lone maggie on our doorstep the other day, I went and got a handful of oats. The maggie was very impressed and got stuck into them. Unfortunately, what I had not seen or heard (amazingly) was a flock of sulphur-crested cockatoos.

One after another they descended from the heavens. The first one landed on the phone line above the railing (photo above). Then he jumped down onto the railing and got stuck into the oats (photo below). Then another landed on the railing.

As each one arrived our maggie hopped further away on the railing.

And the cockatoos kept arriving. On the railing, on the over-head beams, and then …

… more on the phone line! I had been bemused to begin with, but once there were two enormous cockatoos on the phone line I went and got Ted to chase them away. I have seen flocks here as large as thirty or forty and, given how much hassle we had getting the phone connected, I wasn't going to let the cockatoos bring it down, either through weight of numbers or by chewing on it as a substitute for the oats!

Ted did his job and I learnt my lesson. No more oats. For now on, we only feed the maggies Ted's left over carrion, which the cockatoos are not interested in!