MAGPIES

 

We saw Magpies all the time when we were growing up in Eastern Washington.   Bill even remembers (sadly) that there was a bounty on them when he was a child — for some reason ranchers thought that the birds harmed cattle. 

 

After we moved to (western) Oregon in 1971, we never saw these birds except when we went back to Washington to visit family.    A year ago, we made a trip to our old hometown for the first time in years and again we saw a lot of these striking birds.  We talked about how they are so common in that part of the state but you never see them in western Washington or Oregon.  I didn't get any pictures then though.

 

But this summer we saw them everywhere in Alaska.   This one posed for me at Blueberry Hill Campground near Valdez.   He wasn't a bit afraid.  We were the only people in the Campground, so I don't know whether he was used to people or just didn't know enough to be afraid of them (us).  

 

Not the loveliest place to pose, but somehow the light made his feathers look so beautifully greenish-blue, I just had to include it.  (All photos are the same bird, taken within about half an hour — and I didn't mess with the pictures at all, except to add the borders.)

 

 

Shared with WILD BIRD WEDNESDAY.  Thank you to Stuart.

 

Magpies are a member of the Crow family (Corvidae) and they sound very much like crows.  But I think they are prettier.