Five for Silver

I only saw one magpie in my youth, as they were shot on sight by gamekeepers. That wary individual, which did not hang around, was in a small wood near where we would go blackberry picking, carefully trying to avoid the electric fences which kept the pigs in. The farmer cleared the wood to enlarge his fields many decades ago.

Gamekeeping pressures must have reduced at some point, but the big change was when, like foxes, magpies adapted to our urban environments. They are now everywhere. I know their noisy chatter irritates some, and I find it grates sometimes too, but they are intelligent and sociable and part of the natural world. Not so different from us humans really.