• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Magpies

gncxx said:
Spookdaddy said:
I don't know where it disappears to over the winter - magpies don't migrate. However, given that where I am is very high up for the UK, I suspect it bounces several miles away, and a few hundred feet lower, in order to avoid the worst of the winter.
Click to expand...

I suppose it's a bit like wondering where robins go in summer. They are about, but oddly you don't notice them.
Click to expand...

Apparently UK robins are pretty sedentary, although some do a relatively short haul migrate (see here). So, in Scotland you might see a bit of a winter boost from the Scandinavian population - and a corresponding decline in summer. (I know - flying to Scotland to get away from the cold might seem odd, but I suppose it's all relative.)

Apparently magpies do move around, but on a fairly local level - so I might not have been far wrong in the above conjecture.
 
Quick Magpie story from a couple of weeks ago...

I keep chickens in my back garden and let them out of their run for a wander about every day. This one afternoon they all went back into the run and two of them into the coop. V odd behaviour. I checked about and couldn't find what had spooked them, but a chicken' s instinct should always be trusted - that's what I say - so I shut them in.

When I went back inside I heard the mental clacking of the Magpie and realised I'd been hearing that a lot that day. When I looked I saw two of em swooping at one of my cats. Knew then immediately there was a Magpie chick somewhere! Found him inbetween the outhouse and the shed so I shooed him into next door' s garden. Don't know if the Magpies had been menacing my chooks directly that day or if my chooks just really didnt like the birds being around.

Also, saw a couple of crows poking a lump on the grass over the park when I was walking my dog the other day. Had a potter over to see what's what. Turned out the lump was a dead crow. At least I thought it was dead until it opened its eye and looked at me. I hurriedly walked away feeling ever so slightly unsettled.
 
Couldn't believe my eyes. A line of about 15 magpies striding casually down the embankment opposite my front door. They were in very linear formation before I was able to grab the digicam. Here they've broken off into smaller groups. Was the darndest thing. Video below.

Local Gangsters Stepping out their Territory
 
They were standing on the verge of the road in a line about 20 metres long. When a car drove by, they turned around and sauntered away as one. No idea what they were doing there before I opened my front door and saw them there.

These guys rule our 'hood. Not surprisingly there are no small birds in our area at all. Parrots, lorikeets, cockatoos, corellas, mynas, crows, kookaburras, eagles and wattlers, but nary a sparrow. Never even heard one that I recall. The magpies aren't even agressive at nesting time: They're that comfortable in their dominance. Cheeky buggers nick our cat's biscuits right from under his nose. Takes some exertion to shoo them away. Bold as brass.
 
I didn't know you had magpies in Australia. I just learnt something new, thank you. 8)
 
Two days ago came across a crow pecking a fledgling wood pigeon to death. Poor baby bird was in a very bad state and had a broken wing. Picked her up thinking I could get her to a vet but she soon died. At least it was a more peaceful passing away in my hands than under that hateful crow. Why do birds do that? Looking back as I walked away with the injured bird I saw a wood pigeon challenging the crow but the crow was having none of it. Horrible.
 
'Nature's red in tooth and claw', Scribbles.

Just had another encounter with our pied cousins on the road. A pair were really getting stuck into each other and tumbled out of their tree and hit the road right in front of my car. Had to swerve hard to avoid them. I killed one on the road a few months ago. It just didn't see the car and got kajoonked. Now I'm not superstitious, but I have had a hard run of luck since then. Nearly $4000 the poorer for various plumbing issues, used up all my sick leave and home sick today again. Maybe its just winter. :(
 
Mythopoeika said:
I didn't know you had magpies in Australia. I just learnt something new, thank you. 8)
Click to expand...
You bet.

Meet 'Joffa'.

Joffa+Corfe+AFL+Rd+2+Collingwood+v+Carlton+x2ATJbNWzn8x.jpg
 
Nearly $4000 the poorer for various plumbing issues, used up all my sick leave and home sick today again. Maybe its just winter.
_________________
Zik Zak[/url]
Haven't killed anything here but have just had the plumber out again also sick today and fell off the stepladder onto a pile of pyrex dishes I'd just put on the floor on Sunday. I figure it's June, anything bad going to happen always happens in June.
 
Wow, those birds are huge!

Mythopoeika said:
I didn't know you had magpies in Australia. I just learnt something new, thank you. 8)
Click to expand...

I didn't know either until an Aussie friend mentioned wearing an ice cream bucket on her head to avoid magpie attacks! :shock:
 
My father used to wear one for that reason when he went for a morning jog in spring. Postal delivery workers are allocated riot gear and receive increased 'maggie' rates of danger pay in spring ...
magpie729-420x0.jpg

Nah, not really, but this pic is funny - "Just hold that pose and smile, guys.." :lol:
 
Wow! That sound mimicry is just amazing - almost as good as a sound sampler!
I don't know how they do it.
 
When I was a child a magpie came to our yard and it barked like a dog.We hadn't known that they could mimic.
Also starlings can as well. There used to be one around here that sounded like a phone ringing .
You used to be able to see and hear the lyrebirds in Sherbrooke Forest up in the hills but feral cats and foxes have drastically cut their numbers.
 
That is one very beautiful part of the world, Isis. Haven't been up the Dandenongs since I was a kid. Have you been to Bill Ricketts' place before? Astonishing artist.

Not a lot of people look at coins in these days of card technology, but the lyrebird is on the 10c piece. I wonder if the magpie ever appeared on a coin. Not unique to one particular country, so probably not.
 
We took the children to see the William Ricketts sanctuary and we actually met the artist- very arty and gentle. Some time after we heard he had to be taken into care as he kept feeding the mice by leaving food on the water heater.
It is beauiful up there, my eldest and her family live up that way and the birds are lovely.
 
uair01 said:
Do we have this one yet? Amazing! There must be a self-aware "person" inside the bird:
Click to expand...

:clap:That's utterly amazing, the way the other magpie shows concern for the upside down bird is touching.
Thanks for posting :)
 
rynner2 said:
I'm not sure that pecking it "shows concern"! Especially as the ex-upside bird then retaliates..!
Click to expand...

It's not an aggressive pecking, more trying to pull it down and at one point it appears to try and feed the upside down bird.
I'm still going with concern!
 
Maviself said:
It's not an aggressive pecking, more trying to pull it down and at one point it appears to try and feed the upside down bird.
I'm still going with concern!
Click to expand...
The bird song we hear at the end of that clip has made me realise it's a Magpie I hear most mornings in my back yard .... I've been calling it the R2-D2 bird, thanks for posting that :)
 
GNC said:
...Doesn't sound much like R2-D2, though, are you sure it isn't a blackbird (which does)?
Click to expand...

Yes, the call at the end of the video is not much like a British magpie (I'd always assumed Swifty was UK based, but possibly not). For examples of odd and often electronic sounding noises, starlings are also a good bet: beautiful birds, full of character, and incredible mimics.
 
Maviself said:
It's not an aggressive pecking, more trying to pull it down and at one point it appears to try and feed the upside down bird.
I'm still going with concern!
Click to expand...
Magpies do show concern and try to help other Magpies captured in the sadly (and incredibly) totally legal 'Larson Trap cages' that can be frequently seen throughout the UK countryside :(
 
Yes, there was that mad Scottish woman in the news a few years ago who slaughtered as many magpies as she could find with one such cage. She said she was protecting the small bird population, in which case she'd have been far better off killing cats. Not that I advocate that either, I hasten to add.
 
GNC said:
Yes, there was that mad Scottish woman in the news a few years ago who slaughtered as many magpies as she could find with one such cage. She said she was protecting the small bird population, in which case she'd have been far better off killing cats. Not that I advocate that either, I hasten to add.
Click to expand...

Indeed. Cat lovers can turn quite nasty when their feline friends are threatened.
 
If I had a pet I wouldn't want anyone messing with it either. At least when cats kill all those birds they're acting on natural instinct, when humans do it they're ignoring their conscience, assuming they have one.
 
Amoradala2 said:
Magpies do show concern and try to help other Magpies captured in the sadly (and incredibly) totally legal 'Larson Trap cages' that can be frequently seen throughout the UK countryside :(
Click to expand...
They're effective for that reason (I don't condone them).

Regular cage traps are very handy for removing rabbit kits - when the eldest Coalette was wee, I used to catch them, then hold them over the fence by the scruff and get her to give them a good ticking off for being a naughty rabbit. Then put them down and off they'd go with a cartoon racing start.

GNC said:
She said she was protecting the small bird population, in which case she'd have been far better off killing cats. Not that I advocate that either, I hasten to add.
Click to expand...

Me neither, but the effect on bird-life needs to be discussed openly. We have to 'gate' our garage door this time of the year due to robins and blue tits finding handy places to nest inside. The local cats otherwise get in and pick off the birds. 'Active cat' control is frowned upon (although a high pressure water pistol is effective and mostly harmless. I'd personally like to see it mandatory for cats to have very jingly collars.
 
Yes, a bell on the collar is harmless to the cat as far as I know, so not a bad solution. Mind you, if you rely on your resident moggy to get rid of mice and rats, then it's not so effective.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top