Fscking Magpies!

eth0_

I am about ready to go out and buy a gun to get rid of these little sh*ts.
Every single morning they wake me between 5-6am with their annoying noise right outside my window.

Does anyone know how to discourage magpies from coming into your garden? They really are driving me mad!

EGAR

Hehehe, I have them here too and I think it isn't that easy to get rid of them as they are very intelligent birds . Get some ear plugs .

Sarah

junkyard

Find or "get" a dead one and hang it outside your window.:)

Our man in Havana

Learn to live with it! - We have a huge amount of birds including my own parrots etc & they start at 4am - We are well used to the noise by now.

deedee lepoopoo

I HATE Magpies.:mad: Usually there is a lovely sound of the dawn chorous in the mornings but this morning 2 Magpies came along with their pneumanic drill sounds and frightened all the little songbirds away.

The sound of a Magpie is like a sub machine gun ....rat tat tat tat tat .rat tat tat tat tat .rat tat tat tat tat .rat tat tat tat tat

There is actually an overpopulation of magpies in Dublin and I think alot of them should be culled.

Our man in Havana

What right do we have to say that?? Tis like me saying theres an overpopulation of humans in Dublin - should we start to cull the human race??

junkyard

They are b*****ds though killing baby birds etc.:(

EGAR

junkyard wrote:

They are b*****ds though killing baby birds etc.:(

So do squirrels, at least the eggs and everyone finds them cute n cuddly .

Sarah

mackerski

Friends of mine used to have this problem - though it may have been a different type of bird. They got one of those super-soaker water pistols, which was very satisfying to use, though I'm not sure how effective it was in the long term.

Dermot

junkyard

EGAR wrote:

So do squirrels, at least the eggs and everyone finds them cute n cuddly .

Sarah

Squirrels aren't that cute n cuddly, try freeing one from a bird feeder, the little f***er would take the hand off you.:)

Our man in Havana

Squirrels are simply rats with image consultants.

Ruu_Old

Get a few parrotts and in a few days you wont notice the difference Seriously though some sort of a large decoy might work.

doctor evil

Not a fan of the rat a tat tat. If you can put up with one of them try a larsen trap, although a bleein`heart may annoy the hell out of you instead.

There are less song birds about, probaly because of wheely bins so an easy way of food from homes have been removed.

Our man in Havana

As well as magpies (we have a lovely family in the garden) We have blue tits, wagtails, other members from the tit family, starlings, sparrows, robins, crows etc etc the sounds they all make are lovely (they sound like nature!) The wild birds eat a lot of the bird seed that my birds dont eat etc. I have never know the magpies to steal young from the nests in our garden - they are far too well fed.

gary the great

Whats up with all the magpies these days anyways, I counted 22 of them in the field in front of my house the other day!
There used to be only a few about but the last year their population has escalated, why I ask!?

fabcat

Bond-007 wrote:

Squirrels are simply rats with image consultants.

Classic

BlueSpiral

Sabre_wolf wrote:

Cat shaped plastic cut out? Or a larger bird of prey model type thing?

Won't work if you use a cat.

Our cat was bullied and nearly killed by the magpies last year.

EWheelChair

Pellet Gun.

Sigma Force

Is it breeding season for magpies? If so they noise may simmer down once they have had their babies and they have fledged. Depending on what type of garden you have some gardens encourage them in esp. if rubbish is left uncovered or there is a lot of road kill around etc. We don't get crows or magpies in our garden, or at least if they do come in it's a fleeting visit.
Because we kept out natural hedgerows and have lots of plants and shrubs the native song birds like we get a lot of them instead, we have house sparrows, a pair of what I thought were pidgeons but are a type of dove nesting in the trees, wagtails, robin, finches. blackbirds, thrushes etc. For some reasont he crows are more interested in the neighbours garden, duno why.

deedee lepoopoo

Bond-007 wrote:

What right do we have to say that?? Tis like me saying theres an overpopulation of humans in Dublin - should we start to cull the human race??

Great Theory!!!!! ?????

Very simplistic view of evolution altogether.

Seanie M

junkyard wrote:

They are b*****ds though killing baby birds etc.:(

Its nature at work, for crying out loud... please come up with a better reason for giving them the basturd title...

tallus

I dont know about the cat in the back garden thing as a deterrent, a Magpie tried to attack my cat last year, luckily for the magpie the cat didn't see it coming and only managed to take a quick swipe at it. Personally I dont like them but they are very clever and that's a laudible characteristic in any bird.

fits

Seanie M wrote:

Its nature at work, for crying out loud... please come up with a better reason for giving them the basturd title...

They are a non native bird. They steal the eggs of native birds and they are an annoyance.
Grey squirrels may be rats with image consultants alright, but certainly not the red variety.

FranknFurter

Lot of people say a super-soaker used daily will work after a few days, and its harmless.

Another option might be to dog-sit a LARGE dog for a few days from a friend etc, magpies may be defiant but they are not stupid birds, a garden with a dog is not usually a magpie-haven.

Altho in saying that, my mother has a very large (albiet blind and almost deaf) wicklow collie and he ignores them completely. :rolleyes:

b

Kazu

farmers use posion on crows works well

very hard to shoot magies never shoot one but crows are great fun to shoot

Our man in Havana

FranknFurter wrote:

Lot of people say a super-soaker used daily will work after a few days, and its harmless.

Another option might be to dog-sit a LARGE dog for a few days from a friend etc, magpies may be defiant but they are not stupid birds, a garden with a dog is not usually a magpie-haven.

Altho in saying that, my mother has a very large (albiet blind and almost deaf) wicklow collie and he ignores them completely. :rolleyes:

b

B hun,

we have 4 large 2 medium & 4 small dogs & we still have HUGE gorgous magpies. I love my family of magpies.

FranknFurter

Faye,
Dont get me wrong, I adore crows, magpies, rooks, they are amazingly intelligent birds.
I once saw a pet crow somone had rescued and hand reared, named hoover amazing bird, (always hoped to find one meself after meeting that fellow)

I just know most ppl dont like em, id rather they use a supersoaker than rat poisen

An yep tis true, most dogs are (rightly, lol) scared of *them* lol

b

imprezza

I think the magpies are breeding more now we have loads too in our garden. Every couple of months we get a bit of sunny weather and they all go mad, I think they think its Spring and start breeding but I really notice theres more around now.

Huggles

was awoken at 6.30am this morning by one. They make a noise like a clacker yoke that the kids brought to soccer games in teh forties, head wrecking :mad:

LovelyHurling

Wow I dont know anything about magpies at all, and I grew up in the countryside. Where are they native to? I dont know what they even sound like. Maybe they dont come near the North....:D

My old boss (Vet) had a magpie brought to him. She/ He/ It had been attacked by a cat and the person brought it in expecting it to be given the best vourse of treatment and nursed back to full health for free! a magpie ffs! He put it down and lets just say, there was no anaesthetic:o

Squirrels are the worst though - the grey ones. :eek:

Our man in Havana

LovelyHurling wrote:

Wow I dont know anything about magpies at all, and I grew up in the countryside. Where are they native to? I dont know what they even sound like. Maybe they dont come near the North....:D

My old boss (Vet) had a magpie brought to him. She/ He/ It had been attacked by a cat and the person brought it in expecting it to be given the best vourse of treatment and nursed back to full health for free! a magpie ffs! He put it down and lets just say, there was no anaesthetic:o

Squirrels are the worst though - the grey ones. :eek:

Any vet who takes that action with ANY ANIMAL should in my view be put to sleep without anaesthetic! That is TOTALLY DISGUSTING! Dont vets f*cking well treat wildlife??? All rescues tell you vets treat wildlife free of charge.

grimloch

Bond-007 wrote:

Any vet who takes that action with ANY ANIMAL should in my view be put to sleep without anaesthetic! That is TOTALLY DISGUSTING! Dont vets f*cking well treat wildlife??? All rescues tell you vets treat wildlife free of charge.

So you'd condemn putting an animal to sleep without anaesthetic but you'd consider it perfectly acceptable to do the same thing to a person?

On the subject of magpies though, they're clever little fuppers when they want to be. They outsmarted my dog when he was trying to eat a bone and I was forced to go outside and guard it for him. There's definately been a population explosion in recent times, in my back garden anyway. It's gone from two to ten over the last five or so years.

My only grievance with them is that they are in cahoots with the local pidgeon population and consume all of the fruits we have growing in the garden which is a bit of a pain.

EGAR

Nope, not true, when someone dumped an injured badger on my doorstep I had to pay for the treatment and I am a rescue.

As to the Magpie not being a native bird, this is true (*The first Magpies that migrated to Ireland are said to have landed in south-east Wexford, where the first English settlement also took place, and whence the Magpies have since spread over the island. Smith (History of Cork) says it was not known in Ireland seventy years before the time at which he wrote, about 1746. An old Irish saying in this connection is that— "Ireland will never be rid of the English while the Magpie remains." Barrett Hamilton (Zoologist, 1891, p. 247) thinks Magpies were first seen in Ireland about 1676 when "a parcel" landed in Wexford.*)

BUT their rep is worst than the actual damage they do, just because they are large, showy birds who raise a racket. And I quote:

*Morgan has determined that magpies attack 43 bird species. On top of the hit list are harrier, blackbird, thrush, sparrow, heron, skylark and chicken.

More importantly he discovered that few magpie attacks result in death and that mostly they just move on a short distance birds that like the same food as they do. Most victims are other introduced species.

Another significant finding is that magpies do not attack and kill birds in their nests - a major cause of native bird loss for which harriers, rats, stoats, pine martens and squirrelsare predominantly responsible.

Morgan's study of magpie social behaviour is just as revealing. Big flocks of magpies, made up largely of juveniles, tend not to be territorial so rarely chase other birds. Mating pairs, which do vigorously patrol their home patch, are the most likely to chase other birds - and people. They are most aggressive in their breeding season between April and August.*

LovelyHurling

Bond-007 wrote:

Any vet who takes that action with ANY ANIMAL should in my view be put to sleep without anaesthetic! That is TOTALLY DISGUSTING! .

Heh, most animals are put to sleep not by anaesthetic but by lethal injection or shooting, so not giving anaesthetic is perfectly normal actually! We just had a policy of death by anaesthetic for some animals because a girl in the office messed up an order and we had too much for about 6months. In this case my boss used a brick. Now that may appear awful, but on a bird this has the same effect as shooting, which is humane and more instant than lethal injection, and shooting is quite rightly the method of choice used by the country's most knowledgable and experienced vets. I still think the brick was unprofessional though so I am with you on that.

All rescues tell you vets treat wildlife free of charge.

This is a very annoying thing to tell your Vet. Who do you think ends up paying for it? Vets have to get paid. I always find it amazing when people expect this service from a Vet because they are supposed to love animals. Animals dont have medical cards you know. Unless the Vet is hired by the shelter or they have a formal payment scheme, it is ALWAYS the Vet. There is NO assistance from the Dept of Agriculture and Food. Would anyone go to a shop and expect free food because they were broke?

EGAR very interesting post on the magpie btw. I had a listen this evening and heard one! Magpies chasing people, jeez reminds me of that old Hitchcock Film 'Birds'.

colmranger

Vets are supposed to treat wildlife for free, I watched young magpies in my garden one summer and i noticed they were surviving by eating the dogs poo in the garden all day!

Our man in Havana

I have always heard that vets treat wildlife for free, I also know of a local vet that puts sick or injured feral cats to sleep by using out of date anasthetic - I assumed that a vet would do the same for other sick wildlife. I have also not heard of a vet shooting animals before except of course for horses.

Huggles

Bond-007 wrote:

I have always heard that vets treat wildlife for free, I also know of a local vet that puts sick or injured feral cats to sleep by using out of date anasthetic - I assumed that a vet would do the same for other sick wildlife. I have also not heard of a vet shooting animals before except of course for horses.

I wouldn't have thought he shot the magpie I'd say it was a neck break.

To the poster who says vets shoot animals, apart from injured Horsies what animals are you talking about?

Our man in Havana

No I knew he ment the bird was whacked with a brick, just seemed weired about the shooting????

Endfloat

They're not indigenous to Ireland, or Europe for that matter. Some flute brought a load over from America I think in the 19th century because he thought they were beautiful and interesting to have in his stately home and because they have no natural predators here, their population escalated and we're stuck with the poxy things. One of those very bright green lasers that you can buy now are effective at scaring them away if you shine it at them. All you need do is keep scaring them away and they'll stay away. A decoy bird of prey can be effective too, or if you find a recording of one in distress and play it outside your house they wont come near.

Capercaille

combo775 wrote: »

They're not indigenous to Ireland, or Europe for that matter. Some flute brought a load over from America I think in the 19th century because he thought they were beautiful and interesting to have in his stately home and because they have no natural predators here, their population escalated and we're stuck with the poxy things. One of those very bright green lasers that you can buy now are effective at scaring them away if you shine it at them. All you need do is keep scaring them away and they'll stay away. A decoy bird of prey can be effective too, or if you find a recording of one in distress and play it outside your house they wont come near.

They are indigenous to Ireland/Europe. Shinning a laser could blind them.

anniehoo

Please don't post in 8 year old threads!!

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