A new snow creature and a Magpie progress report

photo by Barrie Raik - 2/28/10


Azure-winged Magpie progress report [see posting of 3/1/10]:


I finally talked to someone at the Zoo [It's devilishly hard to get to a live person at the Zoo, but easy to find a mechanical voice giving directions of how to get there]. I managed to get a number from someone at the Conservancy, and reached someone named Rosie Venes. She told me that the recent snowstorm had damaged the netting in their outdoor Aviary where they have a number of Azure-winged Magpies.Three or four of them took the opportunity to wander out into the world. There seems to be no way they can recapture the birds without damaging them. That's the bad news, according to Rosie Venes. The good news: some of the magpies come back for mealtimes. But they don't know which ones. I guess they don't want to repair the net and prevent any of the wanderers from coming back. Or something. Rosie was not a curator and didn't have answers for many of my question; for instance, she didn't know what the birds were fed. And she declined to give me the name and phone number of any curator at the Zoo. So that's as far as I could get in penetrating the inner sanctum of the CP Zoo!