So, I'm lying awake in the middle of the night. Wide awake because I have jet lag after getting home from Europe. I've already tried a cuppa and a read but I couldn't focus so I go back to bed and listen to the radio.
Radio National entertained me for several hours. One show in particular I want to mention here. Ann Jones presents a program on Saturdays called Off Track and I catch it occasionally and download the podcasts sometimes. Last night I heard a repeat of her Saturday 5 September program called The colourful life of the Australian Magpie'. In her opening paragraph Ann mentions that the long warble of the magpie in the morning is a most welcome sound to a weary traveller returning from overseas. She's right. Her program was most welcome to this weary traveller, especially the accompanying sound track. The magpie's carolling is indeed glorious.
Daryl Jones has been researching magpies for a long time and Ann Jones chats to him about the territorial behaviours of the birds. He calls them 'very unusual birds' because they defend their patch vocally every day of the year rather than just at breeding time, and a pair can hold the same territory for up to twenty years.
I'll have to pay more attention to the birds in my patch.
1 comment:
I'm fascinated by Magpies calls too but have to say when I can't sleep and they "chat" all through the night I get sucked into it. I hear the call then wait to hear the response from some distance off, then the first one calls again ad finitum. It's not conducive to falling asleep.
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