Black Bird Down

The Black-billed Magpies nesting in the spruce tree in front of our house were unusually noisy the other day - every time we went in or out of the door they were positively screaming at us from the eavestrough.  In the evening, I had a few minutes to poke around in the rain to figure out what the fuss was all about and under our neighbour's hedge this little fledgling was hiding.

Black-billed Magpie, Pica hudsonia, fledgling

Given the number of outdoor cats in our neighbourhood I didn't feel optimistic about this young bird's chances, although Mom and Dad were clearly going to be pretty serious about defending it.  There was no sign of the fledgling the next day and the parents had settled down.  I've read that fledglings are much more capable of flight and/or self-defense than we generally assume so perhaps it made it through after all?

What's going on down there?

No pictures please!