Spring has arrived in Manangatang.  We can see the signs.  The first sign was the bulbs popped out of the lawn and we have some pretty flowers.  Then we had some beautiful sunny days last week.

One of our trees has new leaves and we can see the buds about to burst on our other two trees.

But the main sign for us is that our magpie is back!  This is not always a good sign of Spring because he likes to swoop us and our visitors!  We have discovered that there is no swooping when we have our hats on!  This is a good incentive to do this.  However any visitor who has come this week without a hat has been swooped!  We have tested this theory out!

The children have been on magpie watch!  Hats on of course.

They decided they would make a magpie trap.  First they got Mrs Gayle to hold a pipe above her head for the magpie to fly through.

Then they asked if we had a net.  I said I didn’t think so, but they remembered the ball bag.  So they emptied the bag out and they tied it too the pipe.

We waited all session but we didn’t catch the magpie.  Maybe next week.

In the meantime we have talked about the magpie protecting her eggs in the nest (we can see this from the outside area).  We will need to be careful for the next few months until the chicks hatch and fly away.