Killing magpies

[JP_]

Wife watched a magpie kill a female blackbird today. The male kept coming to check from the best.

Magpie numbers have increased in the last year here, we see very few garden birds now, often see discarded eggs.

I see there are traps, and also the option of shooting with air rifle.

Anybody with experience and have any tips?

 

[sodthisforfun]

https://www.theguardian.com/environ...am-and-the-countryside-war-over-bird-killings
Think the law has changed... make sure you don't get reported by nosey neighbours!!

 

[crystal ball]

I broke up fight between two Sparrows the other day, one had the other pinned to the ground giving it a good pecking, I waded in with no thought for my own safety and wafted a fly swat at them

 

[EFLImpudence]

Wife watched a magpie kill a female blackbird today.

Ok.

Anybody with experience and have any tips?

Put out food for the magpie. How about chicken?

 

[Munroast]

Wife watched a magpie kill a female blackbird today. The male kept coming to check from the best.

Magpie numbers have increased in the last year here, we see very few garden birds now, often see discarded eggs.

I see there are traps, and also the option of shooting with air rifle.

Anybody with experience and have any tips?

that is nature, and that is the way of things. Please don't kill any wild birds with your gun.

For many hundreds of thousands of years birds have existed alongside each other in vast numbers. The massive decline (up to 50% of birds) in the last 40 years has nothing to do with predation amongst birds and has everything to do with humans interfering and taking their habitat

birds of prey (inc corvids) will occasionally take some songbirds and raid their nests, that is just the way of things, as they say nature is red in tooth and claw, Magpies have every bit of right to be here as any other bird.
if Magpies had the ability to rule the skies then all other birds would have vanished before humans even existed, the truth is they too struggle to find enough food and need to rely on other birds that have built easy to find nests! Please please please don't kill them or any other wildlife.

 

[securespark]

You don't need to kill, but a loud bang will scare the feckers off.

 

[crystal ball]

I was doing an inspection on a country church, testing the outside lights I walked round the back and startled a Sparrowhawk just about to devour a Blackbird, it flew off in my direction, I felt its wing brush my head as it flew past, glad it never sunk its talons into my face

 

[ajohn]

Going on what goes on around here pigeons are more of problem. They don't kill other birds but do drive them off. Wars between birds seem to be pretty common when there is a nest around. We do get nests in the garden and I have never seen the birds from the nest loose. I have seen cats win - far more of a problem especially when the birds are learning to fly.

Magpies don't like Jackdaws.

 

[Bodd]

I broke up fight between two Sparrows the other day, one had the other pinned to the ground giving it a good pecking, I waded in with no thought for my own safety and wafted a fly swat at them

Are you OK now?

 

[crystal ball]

Had to have a lie down and a biscuit, but a lesson learned by the Sparrow, don't mess with me bucko

 

[Bodd]

You don't need to kill, but a loud bang will scare the feckers off.

Or do what I do with the snails in my garden. I gather them together and evict them to a safe haven away from the house.

 

[securespark]

Talking of Magpies, I've been counting birds in the garden today. There's a large number of Magpies around, I never realised. I'd just jotted down the 18th of the day, when another swooped down, coughing.

That must be CORVID-19, I thought.

 

[EFLImpudence]

Very good.

Bear in mind, if you see lots of crows together, they're rooks and if you see a rook on its own it's a crow.

 

[securespark]

I just call them all crooks.

 

[noseall]

I got together with my mates for a feast in that Yoga blokes garden. We chomped on all of his greenery, until it was time for our usual trip in his 'snail bucket'. Ended up in the same hedge ready for the trip back to his delicious veg.