I’ve been spending a lot of time with magpie energy lately. Magpie was with me throughout winter and I thought they would move on at Spring Equinox.
But just before equinox I started seeing images of the ghost magpies we have here in Edmonton and I realized they would be staying with me a little longer. We have a permanent population of leucitic, or semi-albino magpies. The ones I usually see are grey and white, but there is a variety of unusual colouring. I haven’t seen a live ghost magpie since last summer but last week pictures of them kept turning up to keep them in the front of my mind.
Last night I watched a pair of regular black and white magpies groom each other on the big elm outside my house.
This morning as I sat in the yard I watched one, and then two, and then three gather silently in the same tree. They were unusually quiet for magpies.
Then, as if on cue, they all took off in different directions to the trees surrounding my house and started calling for others to join them. Magpies flew in to gather in the surrounding trees. They swooped and swirled around me, creating a merkaba of magpies that lasted several minutes until they settled into their perches. The calling continued even longer.
Once their calls settled down, I noticed a sort of murmuring chorus in the trees behind me. I turned and saw something that looked related to mating behaviour. Two magpies sat close together on one branch and at least a dozen more surrounded them, calling softly. Every once in a while one magpie would fly to a new perch followed by a few minutes of repositioning of the annoyance before the mischief settled and the chorus began again. It lasted the whole time I was outside. I have never witnessed that magpie behaviour before.
This evening, to cap off the magpie celebration of spring, I watched a single magpie hop around the big elm, searching, pulling and then finally flying off with the perfect stick for a nest.
What a great reminder that spring is around the corner, despite all the snow we’ve been getting!
