Magpies! One for sorrow ? This is very much the case if you happen to stroll through the territory of a Maggo (?) in the Spring.
I have direct experience of this. In suburban Sydney, when my son was 5 years old, the playground was terrorised by a particular magpie and it kept swooping down and nipping him on the head. It was an odd feeling because most of the time birds keep well clear and don’t attack us. However, this one was aggressive and if she really went for it and meant business, she could have caused a severe injury.
It made think of a Hitchcock film, but I forget which one.
Curious beast, your Oz magpie. We have a pair that seem to have adopted us, fossicking around in the garden and even on the deck. No violence, very tame. Presumably they’re nesting somewhere else – hope so.
They are pricks. I was playing golf once and I was attacked seven times on one hole where he had a nest. He just kept coming back and back. The next time I played there I was assured he wouldn’t bother me as he had been, “Taken care of”
My two favourite pieces of Aussie Wildlife footage.
I’d like to hear how Iron Mike would have handled it.
The one left standing in this one seems to be thinking, “Mums gunna be so mad”
Absolute bastard birds.
They can remember 20 faces, apparently. And if they think you’re a wrong’un, you’re fucked.
The other day I was happily scoffing my lunch – delicious calamari rings -in the park at Bondi Beach, after doing my radio show. All of a sudden there was a WHOOSH at my shoulder, and in a millisecond a cheeky seagull, with admirable accuracy and no damage to my hand or fingers, swiped said selection of sautéed squid and flew off into the sky
I think this is probably not an exclusively Australian phenomenon…
No it isn’t. I had a Cornish pasty pinched in Cornwall once. I’ve also had a burger pinched by a kookaburra.
Well-practiced seagull snuck up on me from behind to nick my buttie on Sidmouth prom just last month.
My son lives in Brisbane. He has had to change his jogging route. I suggested he jog wearing a bicycle helmet.
He works from home and he said the postie cops it every delivery all the way down the street.
I concur: pricks. Sydney’s Western Suburbs were rife with the buggers in the 70s and 80s as the burbs were growing. Got swooped on many occasion and was left traumatised. I’ve put a pause on riding my bicycle to work until the mythical October Long Weekend which, common lore suggests, is when the protective nesting season settles down.
Much of the signage and council info these days is increasingly pro-magpie – “they’re just being protective, just alter your route, they’re not born evil” etc etc, … Nup. Fuck ’em.
You’re on the list.
Aaaargh!
This thread confused me, until I checked Wiki and saw that your Aussie magpies are different birds than the magpies we have here in Europe. Our magpies are lovely, one of my favourite birds. Never seen an aggressive magpie over here.
If you see one on its own, you’re supposed to salute it and say “Aye Aye Captain” . This turns the solitary magpie into “two for joy”. I think.
My dad used to say, ‘How’s the wife?’
I forgive the magpie everything for having a song that is the most evocative sound of the Australian bush.
For the record, an Aussie magpie is the ringtone on my mobile.
And the Collingwood Magpies just won the Aussie Rules footy premiership in front of 100,024 people.
The first sound we hear when we wake up in the morning, as long as the corellas are screeching elsewhere.
First thing we hear is fucking Galahs…
You don’t know you’re born…
These fruit bats make a fair racket of an evening too.
Oh god yes – not to mention the mess. There’s a mango tree a couple of back yards away that’s going to set fruit on a heroic scale (unless it decides not to bother, like our Brisbane one). Feeding frenzy to look forward to there…