Magpies
 

I hope I do not get banished for being slightly off topic but how can I
discourage Magpies from coming into my garden. There are more than 20 nest
in the trees bordering my property but they are on conservation ground.
At any one time during the early morning there can be as many as 12 Magpies
on my roof.
They are bullying the small garden birds I am sure.

Any help would be brilliant.

Thanks,

Reece.

Reece wrote:
I hope I do not get banished for being slightly off topic but how
can
I discourage Magpies from coming into my garden. There are more than
20 nest in the trees bordering my property but they are on
conservation ground. At any one time during the early morning there
can be as many as 12 Magpies on my roof.
They are bullying the small garden birds I am sure.

Any help would be brilliant.

I know its a daft question but, are you sure they are magpies?
They usually pair up in twos. I've never seen a dozen together.
But, to get rid.
They can be quite arrogant amongst the smaller birds but they are also
skittish and it doesn't take much for them to take flight.
Try tying several CDs to bushes and trees so that they spin in the
wind. That might give them the jitters - until they get used to them.

--
ned

http://www.bugsandweeds.co.uk
last update 15.10.2004

They are definitely Magpies, until I moved into this house I thought the
same of Magpies, you never see a lot in close proximity. I have witnessed
some fair old scraps as well as they must fight for territory.
The noise in the morning is deafening, they have a horrible rasping chatter
as their call.
"Janet Baraclough.." wrote in message
...
The message 1098920481.SYCpxUaJw2LRjT9rPIfI3A@teranews
from "Reece" contains these words:

I hope I do not get banished for being slightly off topic but how can I
discourage Magpies from coming into my garden. There are more than 20
nest
in the trees bordering my property but they are on conservation ground.
At any one time during the early morning there can be as many as 12
Magpies
on my roof.
They are bullying the small garden birds I am sure.

I blame magpies for setting a bad example to humans. Fancy trying to
intimidate birds smaller than yourself!

Janet.

"Reece" wrote in message
news:1098920481.SYCpxUaJw2LRjT9rPIfI3A@teranews...
I hope I do not get banished for being slightly off topic but how can I
discourage Magpies from coming into my garden. There are more than 20 nest
in the trees bordering my property but they are on conservation ground.
At any one time during the early morning there can be as many as 12
Magpies
on my roof.
They are bullying the small garden birds I am sure.

Any help would be brilliant.

Thanks,

Reece.



In my garden, large flocks are not unusual (normally family groups in
Autumn) but I've not noticed them bothering the smaller birds. Having
different feeding stations helps. The magpies are happy on the ground but
won't get "into" the bulk of trees so I hang millet sprays etc within the
branches of my apple tree.

Alternatively, encourage crows who actively "shoo off" magpies if they get
too near. Can't say the crows are quiet neighbours either though ;-).

Now how to get rid of those annoying ferel pigeons, including "smarty", the
one who figured out how to hang at a weird angle to defeat the otherwise
pigeon-proof bird feeder!

Paul DS.

"Reece" wrote in message
news:1098920481.SYCpxUaJw2LRjT9rPIfI3A@teranews...
I hope I do not get banished for being slightly off topic but how can I
discourage Magpies from coming into my garden. There are more than 20 nest
in the trees bordering my property but they are on conservation ground.
At any one time during the early morning there can be as many as 12
Magpies
on my roof.
They are bullying the small garden birds I am sure.

Any help would be brilliant.

Thanks,

Reece.



Larsen trap.

A couple of years ago, our garden was always overrun with up to twenty magpies at a time. They would sit on the garden wall all day, cawing and fighting and chasing the smaller birds, my dad even saw one pulling apart a little nest. We tried everything to get rid of them, scare tactics, water guns, cats, you name it. Nothing budged them, they just could not be scared away. It developed into psychological warfare between the magpies and my father, and eventually he bought a Larssen trap, procured a calling bird and began picking them off one by one. Controversial, I know. I don't think I'd be able to do it myself personally. (But he was told that capturing them and releasing them elsewhere was just as cruel, as magpies are very territorial and any unfamiliar ones appearing in another area would be chased and killed by the local birds.)

The funny thing is, even now, about four years after the 'season of death', no magpie will come into our garden, sit on the wall or even the fence across the way. It's as though we have passed into magpie folklore as forbidden ground.

On 28/10/04 0:41, in article 1098920481.SYCpxUaJw2LRjT9rPIfI3A@teranews,
"Reece" wrote:

I hope I do not get banished for being slightly off topic but how can I
discourage Magpies from coming into my garden. There are more than 20 nest
in the trees bordering my property but they are on conservation ground.
At any one time during the early morning there can be as many as 12 Magpies
on my roof.
They are bullying the small garden birds I am sure.


Magpies do sometimes congregate in what amount to flocks but are pretty
quarrelsome, I think.
They will take other birds' eggs and even baby birds and yes, before someone
denies it, I have seen both happen.
The only answers are to keep dislodging the nests if that's physically
possible, to shoot them, which we do here when the odd pair fly in, or use
the old method of putting a poisoned egg into some of the nests if you can
reach them. Trapping doesn't seem to be very successful, from what I'm told.
However, if all these methods are not available to you because of the
conservation issue, I think you're stuck with them unless you can persuade
the administrators of the territory to allow culling of the magpies.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds to email me)

"Reece" wrote in message
...
They are definitely Magpies, until I moved into this house I thought
the
same of Magpies, you never see a lot in close proximity. I have
witnessed
some fair old scraps as well as they must fight for territory.
The noise in the morning is deafening, they have a horrible rasping
chatter
as their call.

I still have my doubts. I have never heard of Magpies flocking.. Are
you sure they are not Jackdaws?
The behavious certainly sounds like that of Jackdaws.

What is the diagnostic feature by which do declare them to be magpies?

Franz

Franz Heymann wrote:


"Reece" wrote in message
...
They are definitely Magpies, until I moved into this house I thought
the
same of Magpies, you never see a lot in close proximity. I have
witnessed
some fair old scraps as well as they must fight for territory.
The noise in the morning is deafening, they have a horrible rasping
chatter
as their call.

I still have my doubts. I have never heard of Magpies flocking.. Are
you sure they are not Jackdaws?
The behavious certainly sounds like that of Jackdaws.

What is the diagnostic feature by which do declare them to be magpies?

Franz



Come one Franz, it doesn't take Bill Oddie to identify a magpie! And magpies
quite often gather in groups, hence the rhyme.

--
If at first you don't succeed, give up, no use being a damn fool.

The flock of magpies that were in my garden were absolutely without a doubt magpies. Quite easy to tell apart from jackdaws or anything else, due to white/black plumage, cackling call and darker eye colour. They didn't really "flock" as in fly around and roost together, like starlings. They just hung out on the wall chatting all day.

In article , Sacha
writes
They will take other birds' eggs and even baby birds

Very true - I once saw a pair attack and kill a baby blackbird that had
just left the nest (why do blackbird chicks jump out of their nice nest
before they are ready to). By the time I got out to rescue the blackbird
the magpies had done for it :((((((((

Happily, round here, we now have very few magpies as the gamekeepers
keep the numbers down.

--
Jane Ransom in Lancaster.
I won't respond to private emails that are on topic for urg
but if you need to email me for any other reason, put ransoms
at jandg dot demon dot co dot uk where you see

On Thu, 28 Oct 2004 15:15:47 +0100, Derek Moody
wrote:

Don't be silly. Most birds live happily side by side magpies except
hawks of course. It's a myth that the magpie is the bad boy of the
garden.

Hearing a furious banging on my patio door, I wandered into the dining
area to see what the matter was.

A magpie had a sparrow in its beak and was bashing it's head in
against the glass.

"Malcolm" wrote in message
...

In article , Franz Heymann
writes

[snip]

What is the diagnostic feature by which do declare them to be
magpies?

I always go by their black and white colouring and long tail. Or is
that
Pied Wagtails :-))

It was Reece's observation which interested me.

Franz

On 28/10/04 17:15, in article ,
"Spike" wrote:

Hearing a furious banging on my patio door, I wandered into the dining
area to see what the matter was.

A magpie had a sparrow in its beak and was bashing it's head in
against the glass.

In human terms they are vile assassins. In avian terms they're pretty
bright - survival of the fittest etc.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds to email me)

"Jane Ransom" wrote in message
...
In article , Sacha
writes
They will take other birds' eggs and even baby birds

Very true - I once saw a pair attack and kill a baby blackbird that had
just left the nest (why do blackbird chicks jump out of their nice nest
before they are ready to). By the time I got out to rescue the blackbird
the magpies had done for it :((((((((
Of course they do, they eat just about anything. That is nature.
I take it that because you were so hirrified at them eating meat, you are a
vegetarian?

Happily, round here, we now have very few magpies as the gamekeepers
keep the numbers down.
I love to see magpies. They are not only beautiful, but very intelligent .
I once had a tame one who spoke.