Aah, the pleasures of living in the Bush Capital, Part 2

[Peter B]

Now that it is spring (yes, 1st of the month in Australia), thoughts here in the Bush Capital inevitably turn to swooping magpies. *

For those of you non-Australians convinced our land is full of creatures out to kill us, it's not the spiders, crocs and snakes which worry me (well, not normally) it's the insanely over-protective magpies which decide to swoop or not on often bizarrely idiosyncratic grounds. Any individual magpie will usually be in a swooping frame of mind for a month or two, starting when the eggs hatch and tailing off as the chicks grow. But because different magpies lay eggs at different times, swooping season can last for quite a few months.

Anyway, the Health and Safety people at work sent out an email last Friday warning staff about the time of year. This is the first time I've seen an email like this, but it's probably due to the fact that I'm now working at an organisation (the CSIRO) with a large number of temporary staff from overseas who probably have no knowledge of these infuriating animals with their always lovely carolling but occasionally terrifying behaviour.

The email included a link to a video clip showing some of the things cyclists do to deter the birds, and how well they work with one particular specimen (their idiosyncrasy is such that what deters one magpie is not guaranteed to deter another). You may be surprised what works with this bird.

http://csironewsblog.com/2012/08/15/magpies-preparing-for-air-attacks/

* And yes, it's an issue in the process of walking to school - there could easily be half a dozen magpie territories to traverse in that 700 metres.

[gillianren]

There's a sign by a local office that I've been visiting lately that says something like "Warning: Aggressive Black Bird."  I don't know what species it is; I don't think I've ever actually seen it.  But it does, apparently, attack.

[Donnie B.]

Did Alfred Hitchcock ever visit Oz, by any chance?

[Peter B]

There's a sign by a local office that I've been visiting lately that says something like "Warning: Aggressive Black Bird."  I don't know what species it is; I don't think I've ever actually seen it.  But it does, apparently, attack.

Most local governments around Australia will put up signs warning about dangerous magpies which have been reported in a particular area. In extreme cases birds can be destroyed or removed, but only by appropriate authorities.

[George Tirebiter]

There's a sign by a local office that I've been visiting lately that says something like "Warning: Aggressive Black Bird."  I don't know what species it is; I don't think I've ever actually seen it.  But it does, apparently, attack.

It would be amusing to me if that was also a magpie.  Alas, the Black-billed Magpie only occasionally ventures to the western side of the Cascades and almost never nests there.

[smartcooky]

Do crows ever swoop on people the way magpies do?

(The expression "stone th' flamin' crows Bruce" has to come from somewhere!)   

[twik]

Yes, crows will strike people. One hit my mother as she was walking in the park, knocking her hat off. Then it settled in a nearby tree and laughed about it.

However, in Canada, the big danger is red-winged blackbirds. They don't like you going near their nests, and they REALLY don't like you wearing red. I went birding wearing a red rainjacket once, and can still feel their little claws in my hair, and hear their ear-splitting shrieks of rage.

I read about someone who used to run along a marsh, and would carry a badminton racket to volley away the blackbirds as they attacked. Gives a new meaning to "birdie," I suppose.

[Andromeda]

Crows attack people in the UK, but rarely.  A bigger problem is seagulls, they are vicious things - especially when nesting.

[gillianren]

I suspect that, were it so common a bird as a crow, the sign would just say "crow."  I also suspect it's some sort of bird that lives near the water, since the sign is on a fence around a drainage pond.

[twik]

Gillianren - if it's in North America, and it's near a pond (particularly one with bulrushes), the bird referred to by the sign is most likely a Red-Winged Blackbird. They like living on fresh-water ponds and waterways (which is why one of my most memorable encounters was on the Point Pelee Marsh Boardwalk).

Grackles are sometimes called "blackbirds," but they are not aggressive in the same way as the RWB.

[gillianren]

Entirely possible.  I've gone to the office many times at many times of year for about eight years now, and I've never seen it, so I won't make a claim one way or another.

[ka9q]

The only birds that ever gave me trouble were the Canada geese that infest much of the northeastern US. I left for California 22 years ago, but when I lived in northern NJ they were already an endemic nuisance in many corporate parks thanks to their ponds and closely-cropped grass.

US Air flight 1549, the one from LGA forced down on the Hudson River by a bird strike nearly five years ago, ran into a flock of -- you guessed it -- Canada geese. They have typically twice the weight of the birds then used to certify jet engines against bird ingestion. The engines on that aircraft were each hit by multiple geese.

We should have shipped every Canada goose we could find to Britain during WW2. They would have made excellent defenses against German bombers. Of course, they would also have done a number on the RAF.

[Andromeda]

We should have shipped every Canada goose we could find to Britain during WW2. They would have made excellent defenses against German bombers. Of course, they would also have done a number on the RAF.

Canada geese were introduced to Britain in 1665.

[ka9q]

So that's why the Luftwaffe lost the Battle of Britain, huh?

[Andromeda]

That and carrots, of course