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All year round we have swarms (so it seems) of magpies in this area.
Yesterday I suddenly realised that I hadn't seen any for quite some time. I kept a definate look out and saw just one, very forlorn magpie in a neighbours tree. This is most unusual especially as there are blackbirds etc nesting in the vicinity.
Now, I'm not grumbling about this, because I'm afraid I am one of the anti- magpie brigade :o Too many of the nesting birds here have lost thier young to magpies as I watched :(
So has anyone got any ideas as to what might have happened. I dread to think of a neighbour with a gun and anyway I haven't heard anything suspicious.
Anyone else noticed a decline?

they've all come up here, you can have 'em back, if you like, we hate them  ;D

Nah thats ok you can keep em  ;D
I despise them with a passion I'm afraid  :o

They have probably come down to us  - saw SEVEN in the apple tree in next doors garden earlier in the year.
I remember as a child feeling really excited to see a magpie or two, as there were so few around - I wish it were the same now.

We've had loads all winter but they have been gone for a week or so.  Can't stand them either but they are beautiful to look at with the sun gleaming on their feathers.

The latest magpie I saw was yesterday, having a scrap with our cat over a mouse!!!

Perhaps they are all sitting on eggs.

Quote from: tin can on April 27, 2007, 22:40:08
The latest magpie I saw was yesterday, having a scrap with our cat over a mouse!!!

Who won?  :)

Neither! The magpie tried to fly off with the mouse in his beak and as the cat jumped into the air to catch it , the magpie squarked and dropped the mouse! In the seconds when the cat was looking up at the bird, the mouse legged it into the undergrowth!!

Hoorah for the mouse !!!!

We've got dozens of them up here too, certainly not gone into hiding, enforced or otherwise.

They don't often come in the garden but fly overhead and an occasional trip into next door's hedge where the blackbirds had their nest.   :'(

Much mayhem in the hedge this morning.  Magpie disappears with egg in beak.   :'(

Last night I sked the OH if he'd checked the hedge for nests before he cut it in the week.  Yes he lied (as it transpires).

Closer inspection this morning reveals a bl00dy great hole in the hedge about 3" from the nest.  Had a wee peek (without touching the nest and while ma and pa were away) and there's still two eggs in there.  Have just added some hedge cuttings in front of the hole to try and camouflage the hole a bit but nasty mr magpie knows where the nest is now.  i just hope the camouflage proves enough of a deterrent.

Just hope that the parents haven't now abandoned it (as they've been away a good 10 mins now) and that the eggs are safe(r).


Absolutely gutted and feel so guilty.

So please please please check before you chop away.

You wait til the OH gets up, I'll be pecking his ear BIG style.

:'(

For goodness sake Gordy stay in bed, boy are you for it ;D

strangely enough he hasn't surfaced yet !   :P

ma and pa blackbird have been back though doing some more defending.

as soon as i hear a squawk, i leap over the adjoining border with bottle (plastic) in hand read to attack the magpies.  i'm sorry, i just can't let nature take it's course when i know we might have partly been to blame.

weather is promising to be horrid and i'm pooped so i'm potting up more hanging baskets and toms today rather than up the lottie so i can be on guard for most of the day !

;D

You probably know this, but when trapping them, the tricky part is getting the first one. After that, the others all come along & join the first one in the trap. So if someone traps them, you normally see them all vanish at once...