Magpie Series – Three for a Girl

Happy to begin the new year with a new addition to the Magpie series.  

Continuing my illustrations of the “counting crows” nursery rhyme https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_for_Sorrow_(nursery_rhyme) after a little break.  Not a part of my childhood memories, a dear friend from Belfast shared with me her memory that as kids after the sighting of just one Magpie, they’d search the skies for a second or a third Magpie, not to be left with just one for sorrow.

I love Magpies to paint and observe.  My first live sighting was two years ago in Athens at the Greek Agora.  I saw just two – for joy.  This past November in Greece again I saw Magpies, not considered a rarity in Athens, sometimes considered a nuisance actually.  Two Magpies welcomed us when we arrived this year, just outside our window.  Again on a birding tour of Imittos Mountain and the Oropos wetlands with Akis Gaitanakis (Greecebirdtours.com) we saw more Magpies (and 43 other beautiful species).

The most magnificent and inspiring show of magpies came at about the 41K point of the Athens Marathon while running- as I entered the city limits of Athens – a large flock of Magpies flew out of a tree and filled the sky in their noisy way.  For me this was a thrilling sign of encouragement.  I ran with a singlet printed with the image of a flying Magpie my mother designed.  As I learned from Akis the previous day, Magpies are not really fast birds, especially for long distances, you will almost never see them on the Greek Islands… an appropriate bird for me as I am a very slow marathoner.

Looking forward to beginning four for a boy.  Hope your 2016 is filled with wonder.

Two For Joy

One For Sorrow