"BAC" wrote in message
...

"Sacha" wrote in message
...
On 5/8/06 23:42, in article , "Alan
Holmes" wrote:


"Russel Sprout" wrote in message
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"Sacha" wrote in message
...
On 3/8/06 10:58, in article
,
"DB01" wrote:


"Mary Fisher" wrote in message
. net...

"DB01" wrote in message
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How do you discourage the magpies? We do get a couple trying to
enter
the
ivy covered poplar that all the small birds live

They're a pest and a pain, handsome though they are. The old country
people
used to inject an egg with poison and put it into nests the magpies
were
plundering - or shoot them, I'm afraid.
--
Sacha

A much maligned species.

Not when they destroy other small birds.

Alan

Indeed. I've seen them do it and it's not pretty.

It might not be pretty, but predation is just a part of nature.

But when they completely destroy all the small birds, which then take many
years to recover, they need to be culled,

In fact, when I bought my first trap for the tree rats, the supplier offered
me a trap for magpies, and gave me detailed instructions as to how to catch
the damned things, he said once you had caught and killed the tree rats, you
were to split them open and use them as bait for the magpies.

Alan