Thursday 5 April 2012

High

There are magpies nesting in the next garden, so skrekky and gallus - and so high up! I know magpies nest high, it's in my book. The sky is blue today - no sleet - and I can see their tails dipping between the branches, flashes of blue and black and white.

12 comments:

Mim said...

Lovely!

Mim said...

PS: "skrekky" means what? "Gallus," I believe means "bold."
These rich-sounding words are new to me.

nmj said...

Hey Mim, Gallus is a Scottish word, quite hard to translate: cheeky, swaggering, in your face... but it is not really negative in connotation, it is often affectionately used.

Skrekky I just made up from 'skrek', to screech. I use skrek all the time.

From Scottish dictionary: Screke, Scrike, Skrech, Skrych, n. Also: skrek(e, screik, skreik, scrake, scraik, skrik(e, (skirk), scryke, skryke, schruik; skreich, skriech, skreigh, screich; scritch; shraich. [ME and e.m.E. scryke (14th c.) skryke (c1400), scriche (1513), skreeche (1560), shreke (1577), skritche (1599), scrik (1614), screek (1681); Screke v.] A harsh, shrill sound; a penetrating cry, screech or shriek.

I think magpies sound like broken toy trains, a mechanical skrekking.

Crafty Green Poet said...

skrekking is a great word to describe magpies. Have yours put a roof on their nest?

Mim said...

Thanks, Nasim!

Let's be gallus!

nmj said...

Hey Crafty

I would need binoculars to see if there is a roof but I wouldn't put it past them! The wee one - there are three that I can see, two adults and a small one - is so sweet with his chirping (I think it's a boy), much gentler than the adult skrekking.

Mim, Indeed!

nmj said...

Pleased to find this:

http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/m/magpie/index.aspx

You can hear the actual birdsong.

Kim Ayres said...

Not related to this post, I know, but I didn't know if you might be interested in this - https://www.facebook.com/notes/scottish-alliance-on-me-same/its-all-about-me-scottish-parliament-8th-may-2012/149018528557464

nmj said...

Hey Kim, Thanks for the heads up, I actually already knew - through Invest in ME FB - and have contacted organiser, I hope very much to attend. Maybe see you there?

Kim Ayres said...

I'm afraid I won't be there Nasim - caught up with other things. I look forward to any comments you have about it though :)

LoveBooks said...

In my last spring & summer in Edinburgh I lived on Broughton Road, but lived on the back with the green. We had a few trees and one was quite close to my window from next doors green. And we were lucky to have a magpie nest there. I think we all ended up having a soft spot for the father as it would come and tap it's beak at all of our windows through out the day.
The 1st time I heard it at my bedroom window I thought I was going mad and went all around the bedroom trying to find out where the noise was coming from and by the time I realised it was at the window it had stopped. So I pulled up my blind so I could see out of the window and wentback to bed, exactly an hour later the tapping started again and found the magpie quite at ease and unworried that I was looking at it through the window.
On another occasion a few of us were out in the back green talking and we were all able to see it going to different windows and tapping at them.
I wonder what was going through his mind as he never got an answer.

nmj said...

Great story! Maybe he was admiring himself in reflection?