Mr and Mrs Magpie

One for sorrow

Two for joy

Three for a girl

Four for a boy

Five for silver

Six for gold

Seven for a secret

Never to be told

Mr & Mrs Magpie

Every spring when the weather becomes warmer

from our back garden comes this familiar singer.

Its happened for the last six years or more

a magpie comes knocking on our gardens back door.

She’s alarmingly large compared to normal English birds

like the sparrow, speckled starling, tits or blackbirds.

Magpies have wonderful plumage of black and white

zebra of the skies but unlike zebras, have wings for flight.

I wonder if Mrs Magpie supports Newcastle's team

they are as rowdy as any Geordie supporter I've ever seen.

Chirping loud with a very repetitive unrelenting song

magpies when hungry will sing persistently all day long.

A proper attention seeker is our friendly magpie madam

this feathered bird, is fearless and totally awesome.

Mr Magpie is shy, he sits on the fence quietly observing

black beady eyes forever moving, seeking and searching.

He is twitchy, nervous, more wary than his Geordie wife

in this family who wears the trousers, the trouble and strife.

Avian duo made sure we fell for their charming manner

came a calling twice a day singing songs for their supper.

feeding them bread and titbits of nuts or seeds

woe betide us if we ignored their malnourished pleas.

Mrs Magpie would brazenly flap and hop into our kitchen

her audacious shouts of “Hello, its time for luncheon.”

I watched them so busy flying hither and thither

building a nesting home for the soon to be mother.

Black and white family expanded, now a boisterous seven

magpie chicks, full of adventure, black and white mayhem.

All through summer we helped poor dad feed his family

oh my, them magpie chicks grew so amazingly quickly.

Then one quiet and rather chilly pre winters morning

our magpies flew away without a goodbye warning.

As most birds do, they spend their winters migrating

needing warmer climates for some magpie romancing.

We missed our new friends them cold frosty days

missed their squawking and funny flying games.

As with all winters the cold days passed through

spring showed up with crocuses and bells of blue.

One warm spring morning, the back door askew

we heard a noisy singsong refrain, a real hullabaloo.

Squawks, cheeps and chirps, as loud as can be

emanating from the back garden, we rushed to see.

There on the fence in black and white perfusion

perched Mr and Mrs Magpie and their younger generation.

The five now grown children had partners of their own

they had come to roost right next to our home.

They sat there shouting each competing for attention

for want of food from our magpie friendly habitation.

Its been six years since we met the black and white couple

each spring they come back and there numbers have doubled.

You do not need to be a genius mathematician

to work out multiplication of magpie regeneration.

This year as spring is upon us, I know I will spy.

The gathering of lovely black and white magpie.

By Tracey Owen

copyright march 2012