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Sunday, January 22, 2012

Our Amazing Magpie!

I spent the day working on CD art for my son's Bluegrass CD that he is putting out. He plays the banjo, mandolin, guitar, harmonica, you name it, actually, and he can pick it up and play it! Anyway, he's putting out a CD of ten original songs, and one of them is about the magpie that lived with us for the summer of 2010. Did I ever mention Mr. Bird? I don't think so, and it's quite the story, so pull up a chair and I'll tell you all about it!

In late April of 2010, our son Lukas called from college (Washington State University in Pullman, WA), and he said he'd just found a baby magpie that had been blown out of a nest in a bad windstorm. There was only one baby bird alive, so he took it home and warmed it up. After doing some research online, he found out it was probably a week old, and that something to feed it was wetted puppy food for protein. He fed it that by hand, as well as water through a dropper, and somehow kept it alive. A week later school was out for the year, so he came home in his truck with a squawking baby bird poking it's head out of a shoebox wanting to be fed! He had to stop every hour or so and feed it. It was really loud, and we weren't sure that saving it's life was such a good idea afterall! Like kids, baby birds grow quick, and within a month he looked full grown! It was warm then, so Lukas started taking him outside. It didn't seem right to have a wild bird in a cage on the porch, so even though there aren't magpies in southwest Washington, he opened the door and hoped he'd stick around. Sure enough, he did, and he liked following us around and peeking in the windows at us.

He slept at night in one of my hanging flower baskets! Lukas worked for the county on the road crew during the summer, and left at 5:30 a.m. One morning at 6:00 a.m., I was awoken by someone saying "Mr. Bird" (what he'd come to be known by....even though we had no way of knowing whether "he" was a he or a she!) The voice sounded just like Lukas, and I looked at the clock and thought he was late to work. Then I realized the voice was coming from the roof!!!! Yep, Mr. Bird learned to talk! (Imitate, really!) By the end of summer, he said "Mr. Bird", "I love you", "come here", and "what??!!!"....all with a lot of expression, and Lukas' voice! Even better, he had such a personality! He loved to steal anything shiney, and then we'd spy on him and he'd fly off and hide it for later! He peeked in on us in the shower, and loved to try to talk to the chickens! He fancied himself a farmer, and flew around and tried to "help" when the kids were hauling hay in the field!



I had a small American flag in a flower pot on the porch, and he liked to pluck out the flag and fly around with it! He was such a patriotic little guy! :)

Lukas went back to school and Mr. Bird missed him terribly! He came home 10 days later though, for Labor Day weekend. When he was packing to go back to college, Mr. Bird flew around his truck, tried to get in, and wouldn't let Lukas out of his site! It was only a few days later, he disappeared. We were pretty sad, and still hope to this day that he's just away on an extended vacation! It was really a wonderful summer....our summer of "Mr. Bird"!

Anyway, Lukas' album is called "Tame the River" (his title track), and we took pictures of the Washougal River in the snow last weekend. I thought it would be fun to superimpose Mr. Bird into the picture, since there is a song about him on the CD too! Inside, with the song titles is a photo of Lukas playing the banjo with Mr. Bird on his shoulder. He loved Lukas' music!
It's funny how animals can warm your heart, break your heart, and a memory of them can put a smile on your face! I think I need to go hug a cat!

Primitive blessings,

~Laurie

4 comments:

Sheila said...

Oh my Laurie, what a story and awesome memories for you folks! I got little teary too. We have lots of Magpies around here and they can be very sneaky. We have several that eat our dogs food. They know the time we feed him and show up everyday to take their share!

I love that type of music so if he's wanting to sell his CD I'd be very interested in purchasing one!
The cover photo is beautiful.
Take care and tfs your story.
Blessings,
Sheila

Robin at The Primitive Hutch said...

Such a wonderful post!
Congratulations to Lukas!!! Such a great achievement!!!
and
Such wonderful pics you did for his CD!
Prim Blessings
Robin

nancy huggins said...

What a great story..It would make a cute book for Children with the pictures and write it just like you told it to us. You might just end up being and author. We had a wild squirrel like that and he would come in our Condo (after he knocked on the sliding door and Billy and my GS would feed him Pecans :) Let blogland know when the C D is ready to sell..you might find some of your best customers right here in blogland :)

Laurie Johnson said...

Thanks for your kind words! I've posted a video of Mr. Bird that has Lukas' song "Magpie" playing in the background. (Sorry if it takes a bit to load....I couldn't figure out how to just post an audio file!) I've also added a Buy it Now PayPal button, if you're interested in buying a CD. They'll be ready to mail out in a few days.
~Laurie