(Transplanted from the Magpies thread)
It is sort of common when you are growing up and injury is rare.
You've just got to keep your head down, shield your eyes, and get out of their nesting zone. They'll leave you alone once you've put distance between you and the nest.
Not a magpie story, but last summer the missus & I was out walking, when we were attacked by a buzzard (which I didn’t even think existed living wild in Britain)
The Buzzard didn’t attack from the air, but instead ran out from underneath a hedgerow, wings a flapping and hissing and spitting at us. We tried to ignore it by just carrying on walking, but the thing decided to attack. It came at me first and well discretion being the better part of valour, I ran for it. It chased me for about 30 yards back up the country lane, and I continued to run until I heard my wife scream. I stopped and turned, only to see the Buzzard was now chasing Mrs DT and Junior DT.
It gave up after a while, but now we were all standing 100 yards apart from each other in this quiet country lane, with the angry buzzard in between us, still flapping her wings and hissing and spitting.
Wondering what to do next, I used a tactic, that I’d always wondered would work if I was ever attacked an animal in the wild - I decided to run at the bird as fast as I could whilst shouting obscenities at it.
At first it seemed as if the Buzzard was up for a fight and I began to question my decision, but finally it backed off and started to run away.
Unfortunately it ran in the direction of where Mrs DT and my son were standing, so they had no choice but to run for it too. So picture a 47 year old woman running down a country lane, dragging her terrified 7 year old son with her, behind them a large bird of prey, who’s now in full retreat from a 49 year old man effing and blinding at the top of his voice.
The Buzzard eventually ran underneath another hedgerow and disappeared from sight. As we stood there catching our breaths, we heard uncontrollable laughter coming from behind. We turned, and there was a farmer sitting atop his tractor in fits of hysterics, clapping his beefy hands together and wiping tears of laughter away from his big red face. He said it was the funniest thing he had seen in years.
We simultaneously gave the farmer the middle finger, and sloped off home
