Magpie

Hi

I saw this Magpie in my friends garden taking a bath.Love Magpies.They are clever birds
Not a great photo but I am pleased to see the Magpie
BG

 

Well caught, we have one or two come into the garden but have never seen them bathing

 

They care for their dead too.

Magpies grieve for their dead (and even turn up for funerals) | Mail Online

 

We have 50000+ Magpies up here - not sure about their bathing habits though.!
They tend to roost at St. James Park a lot though

 

Thanks pip
Magpies are shy things are they not.
BG

 

Thanks Ziggy for you answer
So sad to see that that Magpies grieve for their dead.
Shows that birds care about their own species
BG

 

Wow what a lot of Magpies.They are great birds,and so intelligent that we need to admire them
BG

 

Magpies also pair for life like swans.

 

Magpies urgh
The black cats love to eat them

Jack McH (Makem)

 

haha still like them though even though they are cheeky birds
They are easy to make friends with when they know you have food in the garden.
BG

 

Hi Jack
from an adopted Mag to a Mackem.

We know what we're on about:WINK1::WINK1::WINK1:

 

While I'll admit they're a visually quite striking and colourful bird, I'm not overly fond of Magpies.
Is there a more tuneless bird? A Magpies' call is just a raucous squawk really isn't it?
It certainly seems that way to me when they all gather in the trees outside our bedroom window at about 4 a.m. every day in springtime and start up a cacophony of chattering and squawking which goes on for about an hour.

 

It does make you wonder, there was a pigeon who's mate got killed here last year & was just grieving for ages. Felt like trying to give it a hug.

 

And after the Hug - The Pie. - very sneaky Ziggy

 

I have mixed feelings about magpies.

On one hand, they are fascinating to watch, and extremely clever. It always amuses me they way they hop along the ground like cartoon characters.

On the other hand, they are nasty. At the last house we had wrens nesting in the dilapidated former outside loo. The neighbour and I both noticed that the magpies had noticed the wrens nesting. Between the two household we maintained a vigil and saw off many planned assaults on the wrens nest. In one such incident, I saw one magpie land on the wall near the outhouse while I was in the kitchen. No problem there I thought. Then I saw another one land in the bush on the boundary between me and the neighbour. A third landed just on the other side of the outhouse, then the first advanced to a position closer to the wrens nest. At that point my gut feeling turned into something else. This was a classic setup. They were advancing on the nest, always maintaining a formation that ensured that at least two of them could see everything around them, effectively covering each other. It looked like a military operation. As soon as I opened the back door to chase them, one of them spotted me immediately and raised the alarm. The other one that was providing cover echoed the call, and the one that was going in for the kill bailed, and then they all flew off. But only to the tree at the bottom of the garden where they could watch me, and the wrens nest.

Then one day I came home from work, and saw Derek in the garden. He broke the news. He'd seen a similar setup that day, but by the time he'd got his back door open to chase them, it was too late.

As for the point about emotion being a purely human trait, all I can say to that is that the scientists need to get out of the lab for a bit an just pay a bit more attention to reality. Its blatantly obvious to anyone who has ever kept animals, or even just paid a bit of attention to wild animals, that animals have emotions.