I have been a pretty slack mum today. I spent lots of the morning on the internet setting up twitter (you can find me at http://twitter.com/#!/undeservedbless ) and doing other non urgent things. My kids were good but I could tell they were getting bored so I decided we would have a McPicnic (a picnic with McDonald's). We don't eat it often but it is a quick and easy food which I knew would travel well to the park for a picnic.
I picked up the food and headed out to park where we set up our lovely picnic rug in a sunny spot and I began to place to food out for the kids. Out of the corner of my eye I saw black flapping wings come and land nearby. I looked an saw a Magpie and said to Emily "Look there's a birdie". Soon another arrived, then another, then another, until we were surrounded by around 20 Magpies.
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| Ok not as bad as this but it was starting to feel like it |
We live in Canberra so I figured no one has been picnicking since at least March and these birds were hungry. We continued eating but I started to notice the look in the eyes of these birds. They wanted our food and it seemed like they would get it whether we liked it or not. I guess if I had not eaten hot chip since March I might get that look in my eyes too. I asked Emily to chase them away but they stood their ground, only moving to avoid her touching them.
If you have ever seen the Alfred Hitchcock movie "The Birds" you will understand the feeling I had. Although the feeling may have been caused by seeing that movie combined with my slight fear of birds and their flapping wings (likely also caused by that movie). It felt they were preparing to strike at any moment.
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| This may have been in my imagination |
Like any mother in the animal kingdom wanting to protect their young I tried showing them I was bigger and tougher than them, but later resorted to running for our lives. I shoved the Happy Meals in my bag, grabbed the baby and told the toddler to RUN!
The birds actually followed us to our car but we made it to safety and went back to McDonald's were were ate our fries in peace and safety.
I realised as I was writing this that I had asked for fruit bags instead of fries for the kids and they had given us fries. Maybe this could have all been avoided if the Macca's staff had given me the fruit.
