Magpies are ***** aren’t they

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/Gropecunt_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.

at least more so than the jackdaws which dont really care about me being around

Jackdaws are famous for being highly sociable, certainly the most gregarious of the Corvid family, and for that reason can make excellent pets.

At the other end of the Corvid family are Jays who are extremely shy and tend to be solitary. IME they hate and fear humans.

Jays do have a nasty habit of turning into fishermen lures and are more solitary.

Round here though do see them quite a lot and they arent as panicky as their reputation suggests. Mostly flit around but dont disappear on sight.

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

Seems reasonable…

The starlings are far noisier than the maggies – there’s two maggies, and I can’t begin to count how many starlings there are now, what with all the new fledglings.

I’d love to have maggies brave enough to take food from my hand, there was a wild pheasant that used to come to the fence around the car park where I used to work, there were fields just the other side of the hedge that the fence was next to, he’d recognise my car, and  sit waiting on the top rail of the fence for me to get the bird food I put out for all the birds, come up and take food out of my hand, even let me scratch the back of his head! Beautiful bird, but not as beautiful as the other one that used to turn up – it was a lot warier, but instead of the usual colouring, it’s whole body was the deep blue/green that a pheasants head usually is, and no white band around the neck. Stunning creature with the early morning sun on it.

There are ravens around, they sometimes fly over the house, I’d love them to come into the garden for snacks, they wouldn’t tolerate cats being around.