Fighting back

June 1st

I woke up today to a terrible racket outside. There was a lot of noise and commotion. Obviously, I had to get up and check it for myself, even though my cat and dog were well asleep, so I figured there is no immediate danger for me. What I saw were two magpies who were making that uproar so early in the morning. They were diving from higher branches, making sharp turns right above the ground, all the while chirping like crazy. There were concentrated on a particular spot, right by the hedged. That for sure looked like a coordinated, relentless attack. And that was an unexpected and unusual sight so early in the morning, especially with the question of why exactly that spot? What was there that required that loud fight? Soon I had my answer — from underneath the low branches, a black cat carefully moved to the open space. That was a signal for the magpies to attack again — diving and what it looked like actually jabbing the cat with their beaks and using their talons to tear at the cat’s back. The cat wasn’t even trying to fight back or defend itself. Just put its head down and zigzagged its way across the yard until I lost sight of it. Magpies came back, clearly happy and proud they preened themselves on the branch for a while before flying away. Quite an interesting and intense early morning today. Especially the fact that a cat, who could easily not only defend itself but actually hunt and kill those birds, was afraid and ran away from diving attacks by magpies. Or maybe it was just lazy and wasn’t going to bother.