[Help] Protecting Garden Birds - Magpies - Advice Please

[The Antikythera Mechanism]

Even had the buggers coming down the chimney. Bird-proof cowl now fitted.

 

[Bald Head]

Leave all your silver items out for them they will take them and then p@*s off.

 

[Binney on acid]

I find a Kalashnikov always does the trick.

 

[B-right-on]

They also make a horrible din. Got some nesting near us and they're in competition with the seagulls to see who can wake me up the earliest

 

[Tony Towner's Fridge]

A real dilemma and one which I am familiar with. Last year we had two pairs of nesting magpies in the gardens behind my house. They would regularly get together and as a 'Gang of Four', terrorise all other birds in the area, including seagulls! So much so that they decimated the small bird population in our and the surrounding gardens. This year there appears to be only two magpies and they are far less frequent visitors to my garden. As a result we have a much more varied bird collection; culminating in wrens nesting in my bird box for the first time since I put it up three years ago.
Pal of mine has a licence to shoot magpies, he was forced into it because they likewise decimated his small bird population started attacking his wee dog! I can recommend you apply for one, li cense that is not dog. Magpies are flying hooligans and most certainly , as a collective, are not endangered. The collective noun is a tribe or mischief, for good reason.

TNBA

TTF

 

[zefarelly]

Leave all your silver items out for them they will take them and then p@*s off.

I used some foil faced gutter tape on my workshop roof a few years ago . . .the 2 tone wankers pecked holes in it. . .. I had to re do it all and paint it all matt black!

 

[The Grockle]

I watched a group of crows eat our fledgling blue tits. Horrible to watch. They are clever creatures and clearly attracted to their calls to mum and dad.

This year none of our blue tits fledged despite hearing them in the nest boxes, coincidentally loads of baby Robins this year

 

[mikeyjh]

I’d let the Magpies breed and raise young - they will disperse in a few weeks. Magpies are relatively solitary birds outside the breeding season.

You can help smaller birds by putting guards over any nest boxes and ensuring you are creating plenty of thick shrubs (preferably prickly ones) for nesting habitat and natural cover.

Btw your Woodpeckers are just as likely to raid nestboxes as Magpies and squirrels or cats, so putting guards over them is a good idea anyway.

This - Woodpeckers are probably the likeliest predators around but they're cute aren't they... See my photo as to why the nest box hole covers don't always work!

More broadly, I was watching Goshawks predating a magpie nest a few weeks back, it's all part of the circle of nature. For those suggesting culling under general licence, it doesn't cover you because you want to encourage garden birds

 

[Eeyore]

Away from the other boring shit. I'm lucky enough to have a decent garden that attracts a wide variety of small birds, finches, tits, woodpecker etc. This year though we've got 2 sets of magpies that have nested and seem to have deterred the smaller birds from coming in and nesting. Now I don't want to upset nature and just shoot the magpies but I don't want to lose the lovely small bird population either. Any thoughts ?.

Magpies have real problems with reflective light and tend to stay away.

Some folk have hung CD's around their garden and the results have been very positive in keeping them out.

 

[Peteinblack]

We were getting magpies (and pigeons, and the occasional squirrel!)) scoffing all the food intended for the smaller birds, but that problem has been solved by these:

The magpies are still around, but the smaller birds now eat the food freely, with no hassle from the magpies or pigeons.

The real problem we have is the annual invasion of aggressive, screeching, gulls which invade every May-September, and perch on every roof, chimney and lamp-post, and dive-bomb people, sometimes shitting on them, or snatching food out of their hands. The b*stards are a 'protected species' - I know of someone who killed a gull that attacked him, and he got a £2,000 fine.

 

[MJsGhost]

Btw your Woodpeckers are just as likely to raid nestboxes as Magpies and squirrels or cats, so putting guards over them is a good idea anyway.

Woodpeckers eat fledglings. I can remember Springwatch a couple of years ago, when a woodpecker discovered a blue tits nest. It was horrible.
That's why nesting boxes now have a metal edge around the entrance, so that woodpeckers can't peck at the wood to enlarge it.

This - Woodpeckers are probably the likeliest predators around but they're cute aren't they...

I was going to say exactly this.

A woodpecker discovered a brood of bluetits in a nestbox in my garden, widened the hole to get in and took every chick in the nest.

It took a few years for the tits to come back after I put a metal ring around the apperture to foil the woodpecker

 

[Anger]

Let the Magpies be.

We have a range of small and larger birds visit our garden (including Magpies and Jackdaws and their young) and the smaller birds have not been scared away and nor have they been eaten.

Treat them right (feed large and small if you feel inclined) and you won't lose the smaller birds (well, no more loss than is natural and that is the way it should be).

 

[Right Brain Ronnie]

Let the Magpies be.

We have a range of small and larger birds visit our garden (including Magpies and Jackdaws and their young) and the smaller birds have not been scared away and nor have they been eaten.

Treat them right (feed large and small if you feel inclined) and you won't lose the smaller birds (well, no more loss than is natural and that is the way it should be).

Do you like rats too? So do you believe in culling any animal at all?

 

[rippleman]

Do you like rats too? So do you believe in culling any animal at all?

I do. A friend had 3 rats and I'd happily sit there watching tv all evening with the 3 ratties climbing all over me. They were cute. They don't smell and they don't bite. Don't be afeared of them; give 'em a go. No different from hamsters or GPs really.

 

[Anger]

Do you like rats too? So do you believe in culling any animal at all?

Since you ask, I don’t like rats much.

Do you like Magpies?

Maybe there should be a What species do we all like? poll so that we can all express our likes and dislikes of the million plus animal species on Earth.

it’s not going to go down well with @Harry Wilson's tackle though.

Of course on the plus side it would be a great opportunity for @crodonilson to list Ruel Fox as an option amongst the many species.

Isn’t NSC a wonderful place for sharing diverse opinions?

 

[cheshunt seagull]

I have a very personal issue with magpies from when I lived in Canberra as a child and couldn't go in the garden in nesting season without being swooped and had to fend them off with an umbrella when I walked to school. I was told that if I stared them out they would back off but I was never inclined to try it. The magpies here leave us alone but do frighten the cat. I am all in favour of biodiversity but I can't see anything good about them.

 

[WATFORD zero]

Why can't all wildlife just be pretty and sweet and lovely

 

[Right Brain Ronnie]

I do. A friend had 3 rats and I'd happily sit there watching tv all evening with the 3 ratties climbing all over me. They were cute. They don't smell and they don't bite. Don't be afeared of them; give 'em a go. No different from hamsters or GPs really.

Not convinced I am afraid, I went into a friend's shed one day, he hadn't had food in there and ratty and his mates had wrecked the joint. Sh#t and p#ss everywhere, it smelt worse than a urinal in Palace.
They had eaten deckchairs, chewed electrical wires on the lawn mower and hedge trimmers, gnawed holes through the floor. It took us hours clearing it out and disinfecting everything.
Unfortunately they paid the ultimate price, you never mess with a man's shed.
Regarding GP's I have not seen many of them look cute, with the exception of the blonde one that checked my prostrate.

 

[Right Brain Ronnie]

Since you ask, I don’t like rats much.

Do you like Magpies?

Maybe there should be a What species do we all like? poll so that we can all express our likes and dislikes of the million plus animal species on Earth.

it’s not going to go down well with @Harry Wilson's tackle though.

Of course on the plus side it would be a great opportunity for @crodonilson to list Ruel Fox as an option amongst the many species.

Isn’t NSC a wonderful place for sharing diverse opinions?

No to Magpies, Crows and Rooks, give me some crispy duck to watch in the oven and on to my plate, how good is nature? Yes NSC seems to be a very fair place to be for diverse people like myself. Since having this new tag in life, it's opened up a whole new world.

 

[Tony Towner's Fridge]

Grow lots of mint in your garden. Not only a great herb to serve with lamb but it deters rats as well, they hate the smell..

Not sure if it works with magpies though or any other pie for that matter.


TNBA


TTF