Female magpie begging from her mate

The pair of Magpies must be around the egg laying stage. Only the female Magpie incubates, while her partner must feed her during this time. Females start begging for food to her partner around the time that they lay their first egg, noisily, wings flapping and uttering what has been described as the 'clear call'. The success of a pair of Magpies depends on how good the male is at keeping his mate well fed. A hungry female is more likely to take breaks from incubation, leaving the eggs exposed to predators (most likely Carrion Crows, according to T.R. Birkhead, the archenemy of Magpies).
 Yesterday afternoon, I heard this peculiar Magpie call repeatedly from the garden. The pair of Magpies were at a birch tree and one of them (the one on the top, likely the female), flapped her opened wings, chasing and begging to the other, quite indifferent, individual, likely to be the male. I took a video of this behaviour you can watch below (you might need to turn the volume up to hear the call).



More information
Birkhead, T. R. Studies of West Palearctic birds: Magpie 189. British Birds 82, 583–600 (1989).

New moorhen chicks

This morning, a moorhen was on the island with three very young chicks. They were tiny and a bit clumsy, and had some trouble following the adult about. There was only one adult with them, so I wonder if its partner is still incubating, or brooding other chicks on their tree nest. These tiny chicks either jumped from their nest, or climbed down the tree unharmed. They peeped and flapped their tiny wings comically, stretching out to their parent, who will occasionally give them tiny morsels of food, one at a time.
 After a while the parent brooded them on the ground, a bit restless trying to get itself comfortable. The following time I saw them, the adult was trying to arrange some nesting material on a branch by the water, maybe not happy with brooding the chicks on the ground? There were a number of large gulls about, and with just one parent around, I wonder what the future of these chicks holds.

Parent finding food.

Chick begging

Brooding time