Magpie multiplication!!!!!

[ronianna]

Is it just me or has there been a massive rise in the number of magpies you know see. They're noisey, aggresive and there's loads and loads of them EVERYWHERE.

I'm currently living in Sweden and there EVERYWHERE here too. (especially in the tree outside my window from 3am!).

A childhood saying used to go something like, 1 for sorrow, 2 for joy, 3 for a girl, 4 for a boy etc does anyone know the rest that includes 27 for .......?

And if I had to salute Mr Magpie everytime I met him I would spend all day getting to work.

Rant over.

Comments?

[brionon]

1 for sorrow, 2 for joy, 3 for a girl, 4 for a boy ,5 for silver, 6 for gold and 7 for a story that's never been told.

 You only need to say, ''good morning Mr. Magpie, how's your wife today ?'' if there is only one about.

[cat woman]

8 a wish, 9 a kiss, 10 is a bird you should never miss.  :-)

[rinkytink]

 

Only mentions GB and Ireland:

' Magpie numbers have been increasing steadily for the past 30 years or so, although the rate of increase is now slowing. Numbers have been going up faster in the town than in the country - at 8% a year as against 5% - and there are now estimated to be over two million magpies in Britain and Ireland. With their striking black and white plumage and their raucous calls they certainly make their presence known! They are probably doing better in towns because there is more food - some of it put out on birdtables for songbirds - and fewer predators. We don't know for certain why numbers are rising, but the most likely reason is that they are suffering less from persecution from gamekeepers. At one time the magpie was thought to be lucky, but it was branded a pest because it threatened gamebirds reared for shooting. So perhaps in the past magpie numbers have been kept at an artificially low level. The same can certainly be said for many of our birds of prey, whose numbers have been devastated by persecution and pesticide poisoning in recent decades but are now starting to recover. '

http://www.essexwt.org.uk/Leaflets/magpies.htm

[ronianna]

Thanks for that guys, especially Rinkytink.

Oh and sorry for the appalling use of grammar and even worse spelling � (I just read it again and cringed) I�ll hide behind the fact that is was quite late when I wrote it and I don�t speak or write English every day at the moment!

[TommyC]

Magpies are card-carrying members of the family Corvidae (Crows) and as such they are true scavengers and will eat just about anything, dead AND where necessary alive..!!  Last year I even saw two of them determinedly attempting to pull a live frog from my garden pond..!!  The huge rise in their numbers, as with the other members of the Crow family (Carrion Crow, Raven ) is simply an inevitable consequence of the lifestyles of modern Britons, with overflowing dustbins, untidy litter-strewn gardens and half-empty fish-and-chip papers and fried chicken box scraps on every street corner...!! We get the natural environment we deserve..!!  Rant over..!!   :o)

[Evely]

In Germany magpie (Elster) numbers are increasing as well, obviously for the same reasons.

However, it's pigeons that flood the cities and even towns, now.
I live in the suburbs where city pigeons (you'll know them by their rather sad appearance) and country magpies fight for territory.

I've never seen anything like that before and my cats are staying out of the garden when it happens out of respect for the rather noisy and aggressive birds.

Once, one of my cats was attacked by four magpies and he learned his lesson not to climb out on the roof again.

[Katie22]

i agree - there are loads of magpies in our garden at the moment! they make so much noise and they're after the baby blue tits nesting in our box!