This old bloke's been one of my regular visitors for months, now.
He's got a personality a mile wide; when he wants to be left alone he'll run away, if he has to, but if he wants attention...
Today's a good example; there's a group of young birds, feeding, in front of me. Maybe feeding is too gentle a word. How about eating and brawling, at the same time? When they play, they play rough. He doesn't like getting into the rough and tumble, so he walks round behind me, where he's safe, and then lets me know he's there by pulling on my tracky pants leg. Not just once, several times, just to make sure I know. 
He was in the park, over the road, late yesterday. I don't know why he was on the ground, but the magpies were amusing themselves (as magpies do) by swooping him. They weren't trying to hurt him, just tease him, and of course every time one of them swooped him he'd get upset with them, which amused them all the more.
He tried, unsuccessfully, climbing a couple of trees, but it's a hard job, made harder by the magpies.
Then I turned up, and the magpies switched their attention to me - "Got any food? Got any food??", which gave him a break.
Of course, by then, he wasn't in the mood for niceties, and took off on foot across the park, over the road and into a front garden.
That's where I left him. If he doesn't want to stick around, there's no point in pursuing him. He knows his mind, and that is that.
He turned up this afternoon, none the worse for wear, a happy old bird who knows he's always welcome, here.
He loves the apple tree, now that it's green and leafy, as you can see from the photo.
He's a great old bird.
A Long Tall Texan.........cocky looks like ......Jack Elam with a 10-gallon hat on his way to a weddin'. Only, he smells apple cider and a rotten card-game going on at the Bull Bar Saloon with the honky-tonk peeyanna in the corner.
DEB
