Magpies

Image via WikipediaA fellow blogger of mine, OJ Gonzalez-Cazeres, is always writing Magpie tales. They reminded me of the real ones we had in Turkey.  I'm going to tell you a true story now, but don't be upset. It's not my fault.

First, you should know that my husband, like any good Turk, drives either too fast or too slow. Second, magpies aren't necessarily as smart as you thought.

My parents came over to visit us and to celebrate our wedding in April. They came a couple of weeks early, so they could get some sight-seeing into the trip as well. My beloved, of course, was happy to oblige and dutifully drove us all over Anatolia, where my mother remarked that the flocks of sheep were actually walking carpets-in-the-making. So, concentrating on the open fields the sheep live on, I should also tell you magpies like to take advantage of the road kill on the single ribbon of asphalt which winds across the landscape.

They always waited until we were ridiculously close, in a game of chicken, probably because the tractors that usually came by were slow and they finished up whatever was on the menu before it got there. (We took lots of backroads... the "shortcut" story is for another post.)

"Don't worry," said my beloved. "They always get out of the way."

OK. We sped across the narrow two lane "highway" and, as we saw the whites of his eyes, the magpie decided we were NOT a tractor.  He lifted his heavy hiney off the road and started flying away from us, in the same direction that we were traveling. Needless to say, he tail-planted himself on our windshield and was on the menu himself later that evening.

And you would think my beloved would learn from the experience, like maybe honk the horn the next time it was about to happen. How could there be TWO stupid magpies anyway? But no...

Moral of the story...let the stupid magpie get out of the way!