i am too weak when it comes to animals. i have made friends with a male magpie over the last eight months and it got to the stage where he would hover in front of my window and then land on the patio expecting me to open the door and feed him.
he completely trusts me (i am not going to use the word "trusted" yet) and he even comes inside if i leave the door open.
his female companion is much less trusting of me and will not let me walk near her before she flies up into a tree.
he warbles at me (i know it is to me because he does it also when the female is not around) and i feel privileged that he is trying to talk to me even though i do not understand what he is saying (it is mutual , but he likes me to talk to him because i can tell by the way he moves when i talk to him). he started warbling once when he was inside my house and i was surprised how loud it was (in an enclosed environment).
i feed him steak strips (mince meat is not good because it clogs up their beaks and rots) and his favourite food is shredded parmesan cheese. (i am trying to keep everything in this post in the present tense). i do not feed him much because i am aware it is not a natural diet, and i see him and her browsing my lawns for worms and things most of the time and i only feed them at 6:30pm. i put out about 2 teaspoons of shredded parmesan and 4 steak strips.
yesterday while i was on my podium at the window (and on the phone), i heard a strange sound. it was like a "chik chik chik" sound and i told the person to hang on while i tried to locate the sound, and i saw the male magpie on the handrail near my window looking at me in a strange way. there were 2 steak strips and a small amount of parmesan cheese still on the verandah, and he had only flown in about 2 minutes before, so i wondered what he wanted. he usually lands on the rail to ask for food if there is none already there.
he had his mouth (beak) open a small way, and it was not hot (which is the only time i ever see birds with their beaks slightly open), and i never heard a magpie make that sound, so i wondered whether he was choking on something. the steak strips are about 2 mm wide and 10 mm long, so they could not choke him, and the parmesan was shredded and it also could not have choked him.
i wondered what to do, but then he flew up into his favourite branch of a tree nearby but he did not wipe his beak on it (as he always does). he then flew across the road and landed on some high wires, so i decided that he was not choking because the deoxygenation of his blood would have resulted in a loss of energy that would render his flight impossible. i relaxed (not completely) and took my eyes off him and continued the call.
later i worried that he may have been showing the symptoms of poisoning, or maybe he was having a heart attack because the way he looked at me indicated (to me) that he wanted me to do something for him, but all he likes to eat was already on the verandah.
i shelved my anxiety later on, but i was eager for him to turn up today and put my mind at ease. he did not turn up today.
i watched out the window for extended periods and he never came. usually, when he sees me at my window (before i see him), he will fly directly here, but not today.
i still was not distraught because there have been days where he does not show up in the past, but this afternoon i got another worrisome indication. his female mate turned up and sat in a branch and was chortling (not warbling (warbling indicates happiness and contentedness)), and she does not make vocalizations if her mate is not nearby. she seemed to be calling for him because she knows that my verandah is always visited by him at that time. he was nowhere and she looked with eagerness in every direction while she was chortling.
i am now very worried that i may have lost my best friend in the world. could the small amounts of cheese i fed him over the months have caused him to have had a heart attack? i checked many sites, but there is not much information.
i very much need to see him tomorrow or else i will be so sad that every other good thing in my life will be drowned out by the loss of my little friend.
i know no one else has ever interacted with him because he was very cautious to begin with, but he has let his guard down for me, and i value that trust more than anything else. he HAS to come back tomorrow to prove that my worry was needless.
sorry i could not be more concise, and i know the post after mine will not be related to my post, but words of comfort from people will not suffice to fill the hole in my heart that will be excavated if i do not see him tomorrow.
what i lack with regard to human bonding i more than make up with animal bonding.
16 Feb 2013, 1:50 am
and I hate that I'm a procrastinator these days 'cause it creates days like this one.
