Fauna Note:
Magpies
18 May 2018
¶ It seems to me that there are more songbirds in Yorkville than there used to be.
They’re very nice to hear, but I try not to think about the birds themselves. When I was little, I thought that birds were something like angels — except for blue jays, which not only made an ugly cawing noise but which, according to my mother, were mean and nasty. I’m afraid that I’ve grown up to believe that all birds are mean and nasty, little dinosaurs, really, insatiable predators.
Birds’ stock would go way up with me if one of them would tug away the ten-foot roll of bubble wrap that’s still dangling, caught in three places, from the branches of the honey locust tree across the street. We don’t have magpies, do we.