Magpies

[Slow.Patrol]

I love magpies.

They ate most of the pigeons eggs this year.

[AndyAudi]

Lotobear said:

I was watching our pair this afternoon when cutting the hedges - there's a paddock over the hedge with a few sheep in, one of the mags arrogantly lands on a sheeps back and the sheep didn't even bat an eye, it stayed for a few seconds then took off again. Funny how they tolerate each other!

Magpie’s paralysed one of my family’s sheep

Little bit of blood after shearing & the magpies pecked into the sheep’s back through the wool, sheep was bandaged they pecked through the bandages & into spine.

They are clever birds - difficult to shoot as they know to be wary of people, but I know folks that trap a lot of them.

Nest cam’s now mean a search on you tube for “magpie nest attack” will confirm what they do - yes we created the issue with nest boxes & feeding songbirds….

[Silvanus]

Slow.Patrol said:

I love magpies.

They ate most of the pigeons eggs this year.

Grey squirrels get the pigeon eggs far quicker than the magpies around here.

[Narcisus]

Great birds keep our gutters clear !

[netherfield]

And will peck baby lambs eyes out.

[Narcisus]

netherfield said:

And will peck baby lambs eyes out.

What's your solution to that one then ?

[Master Of Puppets]

Cool looking bird the Maggy and very very clever, they can be voracious predators on songbirds though, this year our resident
pair of Blackbirds tried 3 times to raise a brood in different parts of the garden, none of them even got close to hatching
stage, all predated by the pied brigade, their numbers are huge around here and there has definitely been a songbird decline
over the past few years, obviously not the sole cause of Magpies but when birds can't even raise a single chick due to them
then it's certainly a contributory factor.

Recent picture of the local mob, there were others to the sides of these.

[V8FGO]

Master Of Puppets said:

Cool looking bird the Maggy and very very clever, they can be voracious predators on songbirds though, this year our resident
pair of Blackbirds tried 3 times to raise a brood in different parts of the garden, none of them even got close to hatching
stage, all predated by the pied brigade, their numbers are huge around here and there has definitely been a songbird decline
over the past few years, obviously not the sole cause of Magpies but when birds can't even raise a single chick due to them
then it's certainly a contributory factor.

Recent picture of the local mob, there were others to the sides of these.

Magpies peaked where I live around 5 years ago with mobs of 15-20 in the front garden, they have now been displaced by Crows.
Reasons to dislike them, well 7-8 years ago we had 2 blackbird nests both deep in Ivy along garage wall..
J7st at the point of fledgling nests were mobbed by 3-4 Magpies, now I can understand for food, but having to scoop up 7 headless fledgling Blackbird corpses kinda put me on the no likey camp.

[Evanivitch]

Not sure magpies being predators is much to complain about...

I think part of the issue is that the decline of birds that keep a check on magpies, which has left them getting a little out of hand. Things change, but only slowly. The fox is a good example.

[Japveesix]

I'm pretty sure domestic cats, relentless building on green spaces, destruction of thousands of miles of hedgerow and dreadful modern gardens with fake grass and decking have had a much bigger impact on songbirds than magpies ever will.

I like our magpies, they fascinating, they look great, they're very wary and very smart and we have many other birds and I'm yet to see any direct clash or predation by them (though I've no doubt they predate nests sometimes).