Entry 31
Thursday 11th August 2022
10:20am
A few nights ago I was in the bathroom doing my thing, and I heard the faint sounds of a Magpie outside singing its song, albeit not very loudly like they usually do. It was extremely strange because it was the middle of the night, so the Magpie should’ve been asleep! But it wasn’t. I told my mum and she went outside to investigate (in the dark) and she was able to hear it in the distance, by the creek. After a long conversation, mum and I came up with two possible reasons for why a Magpie would be up at night.
First possible reason: An owl or other night predator disturbed the Magpie in its sleep while trying to hunt and kill it, and the Magpie fled due to predation.
The second possible reason: This was the young male Magpie who will soon leave the nest, and he is already sleeping away from his parents, or his parents kicked him out of the nest in the night. I’m not sure how likely this second one is, but I do know that I have seen the son and father fighting at least twice, now, indicating that the son’s likely to be chased away soon. My mum told me that a month before the son or daughter leaves, they will sleep in a different tree, away from the main nest. Either way, soon we will have only three Magpies instead of four.