SWOOP

We'd heard about "swooping season" since the day we arrived. A couple months in spring when the neighborhood magpies exhibit extremely territorial nesting behavior by swooping down upon unsuspecting passers-by. A friend compared it to the classic Alfred Hitchcock film The Birds... and honestly it's not too far off.

Sept. 1st we greeted our first season more curious than apprehensive. But when Will came in shaky and crying saying he'd been swooped six times while biking down our street, I have to admit I didn't believe him. After calming down a bit (but not quite off the "high" from the attack,) he agreed to go ride again so I could be an eye witness. Sure enough, swoop, swoop, swoop, three more times one after the other, nailed by the same bird. I could hear the crack of beak on helmet.

That's when it started getting fun.

The kids ventured out, all anxious for a turn to earn their stripes of courage. I wrangled them in eventually, but I think Annie stopped counting at 17. That was last week.

Today they started getting swooped right outside our house, in the circle, even on our driveway. That's when I started putting helmets on myself and Summer too. (Fortunately, they've only swooped us on our bikes, but can't be too cautious... I've heard more than a few stories of bloodied heads being patched up in the E.R.)

 Look closely, you'll see the black & white wings - someday they'll get a good zoom on the iphone :(

Check out his face all scrunched in anticipation

There's all sorts of tips - strapping zip ties on helmets or big googly eyed stickers in back, walking with a stick or umbrella, always wearing a hat, etc. (We're paying a bit more attention to these suggestions.) We've all, except Summer, been swooped now but fortunately never hard enough to be knocked off the bike. They especially like the girls - not sure if it's their pony tails, slower speeds or bright pink helmets.

They'll wait up in the trees or telephone poles, usually a few at a time. This guy likes to sit on our roof corner. Nailed one of the kids twice this morning on the front patio as they were rolling their bike out. Sheesh!

Maybe they'll finally wanna start decorating their helmets like this dude...



You gotta give it to them for so fiercely protecting their young, but I do have to chuckle at just another "danger" added to the list when taking up residence in Australia.