taming magpies

My magpies wake me up in the morning and visit throughout the day, giving me breaks from my tasks and an opportunity to reflect on their beauty.

They are becoming tamer and will now allow me to feed them hand to beak. It used to be I would throw the little balls of raw meat into the air and they would either swoop gracefully across the garden and take them in mid air or they would catch them where they stood on the top of the fence or the washing line.

Now they sit on a chair back and look at me or walk across the bricks of the courtyard to where I am sitting and let me reach out to them.

Boomps is annoyed, deeply annoyed to the extent he has taken to sitting on the fence and shouting at them.

The ducks are entranced by the meat balls and rush into the courtyard when the magpies arrive. they have even taken to hissing at the magpies - claiming that all mince on the ground belongs to ducks!