With his swashbuckling gait, ominous associations and garrulous demeanour, the magpie is the dandified razor boy of our avifauna and provokes ambivalent feelings (the ‘pie’ part signifies many a mixture). His pilfering reputation has inspired work from Rossini to the prog-rock band Marillion, and in lab tests he’s one of the few creatures brainy enough
‘I’m probably an over-doer of everything,” Frieda Hughes tells me. “I’ve overdone my garden – and it’s paying off, actually. It’s looking fantastic. But did I need 13 owls? Probably not.”