We have a couple of magpies that live in the backyard. This pleases me greatly because they are one of my favourite birds.

I don't know why.

It could be that I hadn't seen one before coming out west. I remember pulling into Calgary and going to my friend's place. As I was parking, this incredibly beautiful bird with a long tail and very quirky mannerisms was jumping around on the vehicle ahead of me. It was just the neatest thing.

When I got inside I asked what the cool bird was and he got very angry.

Possibly too angry. I'm thinking something might have been going on elsewhere in his life that was coming out at this fantastic creature.

So I have become accustomed to them now, but I still spend a lot of outside time watching them. My favourite thing to do is watch them harass the cats.

I think it's just the male that harries the poor bastards while the female looks after the nest, but sometimes they both have a go at the kitties. I don't always remember to take video, but Gerri usually stops to archive a bit of cat footage from time to time. This was the other day.

Luckily Blue comes to the rescue. He is running shy on things to chase, ever since the squirrels vanished.

On a side note, we don't seem to have squirrels anymore. This is possibly due to the cats getting more proficient at climbing trees, but it could also be that the magpies ran them off as well. They used to torment the dogs, which in turn would torment me, so I would shoot them with the pellet gun and Blue would finish them when they hit the ground.

He wouldn't eat them though. Just crunch and shake, then drop them. I actually have a whole post of this, so I'll shut up now.

Speaking of getting better at climbing, Skins McGinns was climbing around the birch today when the magpie spotted him. This is part of it.

(tl;dw Cat and bird vying for power in their relationship.)

So that was the day. Well, other than picking up a dump truck load of old cow shit and prepping a new garden bed. I guess there were other things as well, but I don't remember what they were.

Oh yeah, drinking.

This post is my entry to Comedy Open Mic Round 19 I am going to nominate @marcusmalone to write a funny post and then he can nominate @senseicat and @socky because he seems to like their stuff.

My second nomination will be @scottcbusiness because apparently, he's a witness and Canadian, so why wouldn't he have a funny story to regale us with?

You can find out all about it at https://steemit.com/comedyopenmic/@comedyopenmic/comedy-open-mic-comedy-contest-round-19