I live in red kite central, they come over my garden all the time and there are regular bust ups with the crows. Same with the buzzards.
Murder of crows
Possibly my favorite taggart eisode
I watched mammals on the beeb. Watched the orca kidnap a baby humpback and drown it ..... We all love Whales yeah, and killer dolphins.
How about blue tits and sparrows going on murderous rampages killing baby butterflies....
I mean, european magpies. They don't even attack humans!
Australian magpies have the loveliest song, but are very territorial.
!Trigger warning! - Anti-cat content included
A few years back my eldest son got chased by one when we were riding. He was crying his eyes out trying to get away. Finally got away and around the next corner was a herd of grumpy cows.
I was on Skomer island with a school group once. Standing watching the puffins do their thing and everyone was having a lovely time.
A greater black-backed gull then landed, with an audible ‘snap’ on the back of a nearly-fledged puffling and proceeded to swallow it whole headfirst. The little legs still kicking as it went down the gull’s neck was quite horrifying for the kids 😂
Nature is brilliant and nothing out there, apart from us, is ‘evil’.
Nature is brilliant and nothing out there, apart from us and cats, is ‘evil’.
FTFY
In the past I have had 4 rescued magpies and 1 captive bred one. Of all the creatures I have ever known the captive bred magpie was the best natured creature I have ever known. Always extraordinarily happy and chirpy and never ever miserable or in a bad mood.
I have also had rescued crows and their personalities vary massively between individuals, certainly at least between the sexes. From a very grumpy and aggressive male to a ridiculously friendly and affectionate female.
That’s ace Matt.
It is indeed, Jackie is a very talented artist, and a couple of friends of mine are very good friends of hers, so I’m lucky enough to get copies of the books she and Robert MacFarlaine do together, signed by both of them. Sadly I haven’t met either of them yet.
As far as magpies are concerned, I have a regular pair in my garden, and a pair of carrion crows as well, magpies are just magnificent creatures, such contrast in their colours. They seem much more interested in the food I put out than any of the fledged birds, probably because it’s a lot less hassle to get hold of! They’ve worked out how to hang onto the feeder with the fat balls, although the 1/2-coconuts aren’t that difficult for them either.
And hedgehogs will happily rob the nests of vulnerable ground nesting birds, and other birds will raid birds nests, not just crows.
Discovered today that the wood pigeons have babies in their shithouse unprotected low level terrible nest in my horrible leylandii, and saw a big crow sizing it up, without quite meaning to I said out loud "**** off crow, they're under my protection". So now I can never speak to my neighbour over the back fence ever again. Bloody crow's fault.
Robins are agressive little shits. Thanks. I feel better now that I have got that off my cheist
Jackie Morris is very popular in our house.
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We found the pebble on the shore of Crummock Water nestled in a tree after she posted a pic of it hidden.
Northwind
I said out loud “**** off crow, they’re under my protection
Pedro, is that you?
Had a Magpie have a pop at our Jack Russell that was having a nap on the lawn.
The Magpie only escaped by the skin of the Jack Russells teeth.
In the garden yesterday morning I heard a load of squawking from small birds and looked to where they were….oh there’s a magpie.. and..oh you evil *****. It had caught a great tit. Nature I know but it made me upset.
It tried again several hours later but this time 20 or 30 tits mobbed it and chased it off. Clearly this particular magpie is spending much of its time on the hunt for the fledgling small birds right now. I hope the sod doesn’t get many more but I fear it will.
Do you visit zoos just to spit at the lions?
Had a Magpie have a pop at our Jack Russell that was having a nap on the lawn.
Saw a magpie land in my garden carrying one of those dog dentastixs yesterday - probably a bemused dog somewhere
When no.1 dog was young I saw her jump into the air and snatch a magpie out of it. Karma.
Thanks to their ridiculously long tail feathers magpies lack aerial agility. Just like humans who wear footwear which is totally inappropriate for the shape of their feet, and the simple process of walking, magpies are victims of fashion.
dirtyboyFull Member
Worse than that are black back gulls, saw one swoop down on a male blackbird getting worms for its young on a playing field and repeatedly smashed it into the ground and swallowed it whole, and managed to do it so fast my lurcher cross couldn’t interfere when I directed it to intervene.
Which is a genuinely stupid thing to do, partly because you could be prosecuted but mainly because that's what nature does whether you like it or not. And blackbirds are so common that I can hear one now, they are one of the most abundant bird species in the UK - why favour that over a black backed gull?
Loads of them around our area on outskirts of Edinburgh. Mega commotion one morning last year with 30-40 jackdaws and magpies circling on the sky screaming like crazy. Found a sparrowhawk in a corner of the garden with a magpie it had caught. The battle to kill it went on a good 15 minutes, with other magpies and jackdaws harrying it in turns. Got it on video. Punctuated by Mrs M saying repeatedly ‘This is awful, I can’t watch!’
I’d post it here but I haven’t got the patience to learn how to do it these days after historical debacles
Black back gulls are fkn horrible vicious pirate bstads and I'd cheerfully allow my dog to mince one@idlejon
Reeksy ’fixed my post for me’ by adding cats as evil things alongside humans. That was wrong and ****ing annoying.
Cats do cat things, gulls do gull things and aren’t evil. Us humans are the only ones to do stuff for ‘evil’ reasons. This necessity to add human traits to animals that just do what nature has designed them to do is just crap. As is taking pleasure in shooting magpies with an air rifle. What the **** is that all about?
I try and instill a love of nature in people and I just despair sometimes.
@lister - you obviously have the sarcasm filter set too high. I agree with you.
I live on a registered conservation property in Australia where domestic animals are banned, so while I will actively prevent cats from killing the native wildlife (here's the impacts) I recognise that they're only following their instincts. They're only here in Australia because humans brought them here... along with foxes and rabbits etc.
My problem with the much maligned Magpies is entirely not their fault, it's my father's.
I am not a superstitious person, and even though I know I am not preventing bad luck, I can't stop saluting when I see a single blimming magpie!
The reason I blame the old man is he is (in my eyes) the most rational unsuperstitious person I have ever met, someone who denounces anything to do with the supernatural, spurns religion, and pooh poohs old wives tales........but but but if a single magpie comes into view he salutes it!
I copied this as a kid and continue to do so, possibly there's some subconscious reasoning that if someone as rational as my dad does it maybe there is something in it.
I asked him once why he did it, his disappointing response was, "dunno really I've done since I was a kid". Arrgh
Who's the * now?
Taken from the bedroom window during today's heavy and prolonged rain (22/05/2024).
Not so bright woodpigeons getting soaked through:
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And pan up to the house opposite to see two clever *s making good use of a dish and the eaves!
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LOL! I like it!
To be fair to the wood pigeons though although granted they aren't very clever compared to magpies they do have extremely dense layers of feathers - you can plunge a pigeon into a bucket of water and then when released they can easily fly away.
Pigeons particularly enjoy a rain shower for their cleaning process. You can be absolutely certain that their skin will have remained completely dry. It is actually quite hard to apply a flea/tick dip to pigeons as it won't penetrate unless their feathers are constantly ruffled.
In contrast if you dip a magpie in a bucket of water it will instantly become waterlogged on account of their extremely (relatively) thin layer of feathers, and they would seriously struggle flying effectively with heavy waterlogged feathers.
No cats do not have a "cruel streak". They have, like other species, very strong instincts.
One of the reasons that they "play" with their food is that they instinctively know that mice are notorious for playing dead.
Lowering their face towards a rodent which they believe to be dead, so that they can begin to eat it, is potentially hazardous to them - the rodent can suddenly bite their face and escape. Prodding the suspected dead rodent with their paw is designed to check for any reactions.
Let me tell you, humans are *******.
Was just out for a walk, and was going to give some peanuts to crows. Well, there is a small kid, who first shouts at the crows, then starts throwing rocks. I yelled at him to bloody well stop throwing rocks, and then yelled "Would you like it if you got rocks thrown at you?"
Turns out the little bastards dad was just 15 meters away, but did not bother to tell his kid to not throw rocks at birds. Dad screams at me that he is gonna beat me up for "threatening his kid", I told I did not threaten anyone, I simply asked if getting rocks thrown at you is nice.
Dad keeps shouting threats, "gonna beat me up" but does not dare come closer - was also a good deal smaller than I am. Kept telling him to teach his kids some manners, so others don't have to, and keep it civil and tone down his aggression. Ends with dad dragging his now crying kid away. Let me tell you, humans are the bloody worst.
I bet he would not have said anything to his idiot kid, if I had not done so.
https://ourworldindata.org/wild-mammals-birds-biomass
And looking at the data there, if there is too much of something, it is too much humans.
Especially this -
In a couple of decades, most animals will be dead, except for the ones in concentration camps built by humans.
they're actually a sort of iridescent dark blue, not black
The iridescent is the oil on their tail and wing feathers, the rest, on their heads, neck, back, and legs, is black.
In contrast if you dip a magpie in a bucket of water it will instantly become waterlogged on account of their extremely (relatively) thin layer of feathers, and they would seriously struggle flying effectively with heavy waterlogged feathers.
Interesting hobbies some people have here.
Rescuing Corvids can be quite rewarding. Specially as they can be scarily intelligent.
In contrast if you dip a magpie in a bucket of water it will instantly become waterlogged on account of their extremely (relatively) thin layer of feathers, and they would seriously struggle flying effectively with heavy waterlogged feathers.
Sparrowhawks know this.
Caution - gruesome sparrowhawk/magpie/water interface footage.
One of mine, earlier today, helping to finish off what’s left in the coconut shells. Tricky birds to photograph, when I saw it land in the tree, I had to hide out of sight by the side of the upstairs landing window, then carefully bring the phone up far enough for the camera to get a view of the bird, plus it was pissing down with rain - conditions not conducive to great photography!
The green feeder directly below the bird has fat balls in; the previous batch looked just like what’s in the coconut shells, but the birds barely touched them for a month, so I got some different ones, darker in colour, with nuts and stuff in at the weekend, and it’s half empty already - the blackbirds and the maggies, along with the other smaller birds can all cling onto the tube and stuff themselves.
Magpie lane in London.
Famous, or possibly infamous as its original name(in wiki link) was the origins of the vulgarity.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magpie_Lane,_Oxford
Doesn't really add much to this thread, other than to provide a little interesting snippet that may be of interest to those like myself who take interest in etymology.
That said, its origin might account for the 5 stars in the thread title.
I think that in the middle ages every town had one. Naming a street after its entrepreneurial activity was very common.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grope****_Lane
I regularly cycle past a Magpie Lane in a leafy outer Melbourne suburb popular with arts and craft types ... never considered it might be something else...back in the late 1800s it was a gold mining area before the rush moved further north
Meanwhile I'm left with the odd mental picture that Australian magpies are larger than their European cousins (bad word choice?) and very aggressive in spring...next time I get hit on the head by one maybe I'll consider myself lucky
We had the doors and windows open today as it’s been pretty warm and not actually raining for a change
I walked into the kitchen this afternoon to be met by a magpie casually helping itself to a late lunch out of the cats bowls. When I rudely disturbed his dining experience he just hopped back out of the back door
Thats a pretty bold move for a bird, particularly given the prolific, murderous hunting instincts of one of our two cats, though he does prefer rodents to birds. Maybe the magpie knew?
Well magpies regularly play chicken out on A roads and the hard shoulders of motorways when in search of a meal, so taking risks to satisfy hunger is often necessary.
Plus since they are always dressed for dinner they don't like to miss an opportunity.
Magpies are up there with my favourite birds - they're a total nuisance with their squawking voice in the early morning, but it's fun to watch them busy about in the garden doing magpie things. They're pretty much the only bird we get in our garden.
Last year I was watching one come and go burying a bunch of stuff in one un-used corner of the raised bed. Once it was done, I went out to see and there were 3 big giant BBQ marshmallows buried there. I left a bit of crushed up biscuit and some rocks there and they were gone the next morning but alas they have not returned with better gifts.
The Magpie was back in the kitchen this evening, helping itself to the cat food again
It obviously now thinks our house is an all you can eat buffet
It obviously now thinks our house is an all you can eat buffet
Impressive. Have some which raid the birdfeeders but they are still rather wary at least more so than the jackdaws which dont really care about me being around (only next to the bluetits which I swear have almost attacked me for not being fast enough refilling the feeders whilst they are waiting).
Magpies and jackdaws are handy though for when the local cats try sneaking up on the feeders and fences the birds perch on whilst waiting their turn. The cats seem to learn their lesson for a week or so but not being the brightest end up having regular refreshers.
