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Juvenile Magpie
#50274 10/19/18 06:27 PM
Joined: Aug 2009
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grelber Offline OP
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My thrill of the day, if not year. smile

This morning I went to the neighborhood public library and came across a juvenile magpie with spanking-new plumage foraging (without much luck) around the base of a tree. When I stopped and chatted with him, he was extremely calm and approached me expectantly, winking repeatedly. When I made low-pitched chucking sounds, he responded by coming closer — ca 2 feet — and making typical magpie food-begging chirps. Not receiving the expected reward, he went back to the base of the tree, 'muttering' to himself.

I have never had such an encounter with a magpie before. They are usually extremely wary and keep their distance and make defensive noises. I can only hope this behavior on Roscoe's part gets passed on genetically.

Re: Juvenile Magpie
grelber #50275 10/19/18 07:03 PM
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Originally Posted By: grelber
Not receiving the expected reward, he went back to the base of the tree, 'muttering' to himself.

It would be interesting to hear a translation of what he muttered. I wonder if any of his words would need to be bleeped.

Last edited by ryck; 10/19/18 07:04 PM.

ryck

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Re: Juvenile Magpie
ryck #50282 10/20/18 07:09 AM
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grelber Offline OP
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Originally Posted By: ryck
Originally Posted By: grelber
Not receiving the expected reward, he went back to the base of the tree, 'muttering' to himself.

It would be interesting to hear a translation of what he muttered. I wonder if any of his words would need to be bleeped.

Inasmuch as he was a juvenile, I suspect his 'muttering' was the equivalent of a human juvenile's muttering when expectations aren't met by an adult (who could have met them) ... which is exactly how I interpreted it.

Along those lines you might wish to check out Thomas Nagel's treatise on "What Is It Like to Be a Bat" [The Philosophical Review 1974; 83 (4): 435-450].

Re: Juvenile Magpie
grelber #50289 10/20/18 09:51 PM
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Originally Posted By: Grelber
Inasmuch as he was a juvenile, I suspect his 'muttering' was the equivalent of a human juvenile's muttering when expectations aren't met by an adult (who could have met them) ... which is exactly how I interpreted it.

You mean something along the lines of, "I hope you are a new source of food that I won't have to work for." grin


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

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Re: Juvenile Magpie
joemikeb #50293 10/21/18 10:18 AM
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grelber Offline OP
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Originally Posted By: joemikeb
Originally Posted By: Grelber
Inasmuch as he was a juvenile, I suspect his 'muttering' was the equivalent of a human juvenile's muttering when expectations aren't met by an adult (who could have met them) ... which is exactly how I interpreted it.

You mean something along the lines of, "I hope you are a new source of food that I won't have to work for." grin

Más or menos ... probably with a tinge of "I'm cute and deserving and I'm not seeing anything worth wasting more time on."


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