A YEAR ago four rambunctious young magpies arrived in our backyard.
We gave them little bits of minced meat, breadcrumbs - they eat most things. And they have repaid us ever since with morning and evening songs at the back door and midday warblings in one of our trees.
They patrol the lawn and pounce on the grubs just below the surface. They roll around on the grass, sit beside us on the deck while we have coffee. They even brought us a present once, a half-eaten lizard which they left at the back door. Paying us back.
Dangerous birds? You're kidding. They're our friendly, curious buddies. They know us by sight and they come running when they see us. They never attack us. They eat out of our hands.
Millions of Australians have the same experience.
The four young magpies soon became three, one of them maybe moving on to do its own thing elsewhere. Thick, Thin and Number 3 have been around ever since, and have become shiny black-and-white young adults.
They're observant. I hung a painting on the back deck, done by my mother, of a woman in a headscarf. One of the magpies watched me do it. My wife came out of the back door in very similar headgear and I watched amused as the magpie looked intently from my wife to the picture. Back to my wife. The picture.
They remember people. One day my wife came home from a walk wearing a big white sun visor, and the magpies went ballistic. I rushed out of the house to see what was going on. They were up in the tree howling, shouting and raising hell. When my wife took off the visor they were out of the tree in a flash and came running up to her. What are the odds there is another woman with a white visor in their territory who carries a big stick or throws stones?
They're alert. Always. An alarm call from the mature magpies in their nesting tree (which we don't know) gets an instant response. They rocket off to defend their home and you can see they mean business. This might happen five times a day.
Last month they suddenly vanished. All together and all at once.
Why did they disappear? Magpies treasure their territories like we treasure our homes. They defend their territory from all-comers, including humans, in the nesting season around this time of year.
They don't leave their home-sweet-home for no reason.
There are no magpies in our particular area at Kotara South now. Their morning and evening carolling sessions were heard everywhere around here, ringing like bells. Now the trees are silent. There are no magpies here.
What could make a magpie family disappear?
A cat could have killed them all, but that would have to be some cat.
Somebody could have made a complaint to the council, which might have sent a friendly ranger out to "relocate" the nest if the birds were particularly aggressive. Officers from Newcastle City Council and the National Parks and Wildlife Service tell me that hasn't happened.
Somebody might have destroyed the nest because the magpies had the nerve to try and defend it. If they did, that person should know the magpies they killed are the best there are. Most magpies never get to have a territory, build a nest or raise young. The future of all magpies is kept alive by a surprisingly small cohort of successful birds.
I don't know what happened to our magpies, but I do know they were like a birthday present every day for a year. It was like a yard full of little puppies playing around the place every day.
The website magpiealert.com is full of horror stories and pictures of weird-looking helmet constructions designed to scare off swooping magpies in spring, or prevent them from making contact. But magpies are courageous birds and they don't scare easily on their own turf.
More than likely these modified contraptions only confirm to the birds that the wearer really is dangerous and has to be seen off.
The magpiealert website also has many stories of how ordinary Australians love the magpies that visit their backyard, singing, fossicking for grubs and worms and engaging in all sorts of interesting antics.
One thing stands out in these stories: feed magpies a little and they will never attack you.
They know who their friends are - the ones who help them along in life, who don't threaten them with sticks and stones, or shout and wave their hands about.
They like people who look them in the eye while giving them a little treat, so they can get a good look at you. And they will remember you. After a while they'll talk to you. If you are friendly to a magpie, you are in for years of happiness whenever they are around.
Notice to any interested magpies: Our backyard is free at the moment.
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