Magpies

Baby Magpies are the cutest creatures ever. They are like a black and white boiled egg on legs

.. a shame they grow up to be like their parents

Indeed! That's a thought I have often.

Humans take heed!

It is always the adaptors who are the better survivors. It's how natural selection/evolution works.

Trouble is magpies have adapted very well to the 21st century. Discarded food, especially from fast food takeaways, road kill, those of us who like to feed the wildlife, etc and they're not over fussy where they build their nests so loss of habitat doesn't really affect them.

So numbers on the increase accordingly.

A few hundred years ago red kites were considered a real nuisance - things change all the time

We have lots of magpies round us. They are beautiful birds and they don't seem to be much trouble. We don't have sparrows but we have lots of tits, blue, coal, great and long tailed, and we have robins, blackbirds, goldfinches and chaffinches. This year we've had a couple of families of starlings for the first time. There's no sign of us losing any of them to the magpies.

We get quite a few red kite around here, and beautiful birds they are,too. But last week, when driving along near Welwyn Garden City, a kite swept really low over our car and dropped a small rabbit onto the road. We don't know whether it's intention was to kill the poor little thing, or it just lost its grip on it.

The crows in our neighbourhood also mob the local heron when it is sitting on next door's roof eyeing up the fish in our pond and I did wonder why they were bothered about it. The heron takes fish and frogs from the pond (when it eventually finds a way to circumvent my latest ingenious heron-deterrent) but I didn't realise that they also take chicks. It all makes sense now.

Saw crows mobbing a heron just up the hill from us the other day. I supposed it had been after chicks. It's usually buzzards that the crows mob around here.

Lots of magpies here too. The main thing I've noticed about them, in spring in particular, is how noisy they are.

Thanks for all your comments and opinions folks I seem to have opened a can of worms here (pardon the pun!), and No Thatbags, I don't HATE magpies or any other creatures either! But the numbers are definitely on the increase. Well since the kerfuffle in the tree the other day where I assume the blackbirds have their nest, the magpies have been pretty lowkey and the pair of blackbirds are still around so if the magpies have had the eggs/chicks they will probably just start all over! Am now experimenting putting less food out and at different times as the magpies seem to be about early in the morning.

Good thinking, greyduster. If you only put out seedy sort of food for small birds magpies will eat the small birds. If you supply the magpies with sandwiches, or pasta, or chopped up liver, they'll eat that instead.

Check out Sophie the Magpie on Twitter. She's a character @breesophiebree

You put a cheese sandwich out, anya and they'll have that as well. They aren't fussy.

I remember some years ago, walking along beside a moorland river, when all of a sudden there was an almighty commotion and a wood pigeon shot out of the trees with a magpie firmly clamped to its belly. The wood pigeon was not giving up without a fight - the magpie had clearly picked on the wrong bird. As the wood pigeon flew over the river, the magpie lost its hold on the wood pigeon and fell into the river. It was pitiful to see it trying to take flight from the water, but not being a seabird, it obviously couldn't manage it, and I assume it drowned. That's nature for you. It upset me, but then I thought of the poor wood pigeon...

I don't hate them bags it just stresses me out watching the slaughter. I wish they'd all settle foe a cheese sandwich instead

I've gone off the RSPB (long story) but I'm glad to hear they just shrug about magpie complaints.

Funny how we seem to be soppy about Nature, especially cuteness (finger down throat emoji) until we see Nature just getting on with being Nature. Magpies are part of
nature and they are only doing what magpies do. There are plenty of other birds of prey. Do you all hate them as well? If not, why not? There's no essential difference.

And you should hate lions and tigers too, and wolves and jackals and alligators and, and, and...

Robins eat smaller animals. So do song thrushes. And dunnocks. And wrens. And bluetits.....

Magpies and other corvids are not the only carnivores. Get real, folks.

We get a few magpies, rooks, and also jackdaws in the garden, but I only feed small birds in Winter, so the nests we have are safe so far.

The biter bit, then joanna ?

Yesterday I watched as two magpies tried to protect their nest, high up in an ash tree at the bottom of our garden, from a marauding,very large crow.
After 10 minutes, they were successful.

So will you post the percentages Grayduster ?

When I was working, we had a perfect view of pigeons nesting high in a tree opposite our upstairs office window. We were all quite fascinated with their comings and goings as the eggs hatched and the parents fed the chicks. I put a pair of binoculars on the window sill so that staff could watch them. Then one morning, along came a magpie and took one of the chicks, then another. Before long the nest was empty. I know that this is natural behaviour and one shouldn't be sentimental about it, but it strikes me that the numbers are seriously out of balance now with the rest of the bird population, and maybe it is time for controls (I used the word cull upthread which seems to have raised at least one person's hackles) of some kind - between 1970 and 1990 their numbers in urban and suburban areas tripled (in rural areas they were said to have remained the same). They are now said to have stabilised but frankly I don't believe it. Even the RSPB control corvid numbers on their reserves where they have birds nesting whose populations are under threat, but suggest controls to help the wider bird population and they throw up their hands in horror. They can't have their cake and eat it. I don't really want to get into a debate about this; I'm just putting in my four penn'orth. Other, contrary, views are available.

Yes, they are stressing me out too. I have robins, blue tits, great tits, gold crest and other birds nesting in my garden. Last week I saw two magpies in my back garden and when I rushed out to shoo them away there were two small blue eggs with their contents drained on my lawn.

Worse still yesterday morning I saw one on my roof with a stolen chick in its beak.

But yesterday afternoon as I pulled into my drive I watched in amazement as two wood pigeons chased a magpie off and then a blackbird joined in the pursuit. I have three nests in one conifer at the front - wood pigeon, blackbird and the gold crest, so it's good to know that two of these are at least up for an attack on the magpies

We can get 4/5 day after day in our garden but have had a real battle trying to keep them away from a blackbird nest in a densely covered trellis 3 feet away from our kitchen door.
We are alerted when the blackbirds start getting agitated and flying frenziedly. The nest is now empty and we hope against hope that they have flown. It had been a joy to watch the parents and hear the fledglings but we know nature is cruel.

The are quite magnificent creatures, when they strut across the lawn, but equally horrible creatures when they attack the small birds and their nests. It is all nature at it's worst and best.