Magpie bathing antics

Yesterday I was reading while  sitting in the sun on our back veranda. I love  sunny autumn days in South Australia.

After a few minutes I was interrupted by a young Australian Magpie attempting to have a bath. The veranda is only a few months old and I still haven’t connected the down pipe from the roof to the rainwater tank. My wife has put a tub underneath the outlet to catch dew and rain so we can then use the water to keep the garden alive. With the recent rain this tub was full of water.

This young magpie tried every method he could think of to have a bath, but the water is about 30cm (12″) deep. He ended up vigorously swishing his head in the water which ended up splashing all over him. But that wasn’t enough.

He tried stepping down into the tub but ended up just flopping into deep water most ungracefully. Several attempts later he gave up and flew off to preen. It’s one of those amusing incidents where you wished you had a video camera in your hand at that very moment. Sorry – no video. You’ll just have to be content with a still photo instead.

Australian Magpie