Magpies

[poliphilo]

We were at Ruth's on Sunday and John, who was sitting facing the bird table, saw a magpie swoop down on a starling, break its neck with one twitch of the beak and carry it off. Smart birds magpies, beautiful too.

 

Strange then how much we hate them.  There was an item on the news- or maybe it was one of those country life programmes- about some rural types who are going round trapping and killing magpies (with the blessings of whatever authority applies) because they believe they're responsible for the decrease in the number of songbirds (not that that's anything more than a guess). I'm very fond of songbirds too, but I think it's petulant of us to play favourites like this. Besides, if we were really serious about protecting songbirds we'd bell all the cats. Is the Natural World our garden that we can choose which species thrive in it and which don't? Well, yes, in a small, over-managed country like Britain I suppose it is- but don't expect me to approve.

 

We anthropomorphise our beasts. Worse than that, we characterise them in terms of the class system.  Some we think of as noble, some as rabble. Hawks kill songbirds too, but they get a pass because of their long association with the aristocracy. The glamour of the big house rubs off on them.  Magpies, though handsomer than any hawk and much more intelligent, never sat on any ducal wrist- and because they scavenge and pick up shiny things we have them down as vagabonds and thieves. Common, common, common.  Call in the gamekeepers; we'll teach 'em to know their place.   

Comments

[jenny_evergreen]

I just wrote about magpies myself over in my wrenstarling journal!
I saw that article as I was preparing to write, and agree with you.

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

They eat so much carrion / roadkill, I guess that is why they are thriving and why we despise them. And there's all that superstitious stuff about saying "Good morning Mr Magpie" or "Good morning Captain" when you see them, or it would be bad luck, and the "one for sorrow, two for joy" thing. Where did all that come from?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Synchronicity! I love it.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

We do tend to dislike carrion-eaters- useful though they are.

As for the superstitions, I haven't a clue.

[brttvns.livejournal.com]

Quite rightly spoken - a dispicable and arrogant attitude some have to nature. The human being think's it is so fucking righteous.

[amritarosa.livejournal.com]

Oh I do love magpies :) Years ago, when Twayn and I made our big trip to Alaska, we saw the most magnificent magpies among the equally magnificent ravens.

Seeing big brown bears was fine, but it was the wild swans, the giant scarlet salmon swimming right under our canoe, and the magpies and ravens that really got me.

In certain regions over here it's crows that some people feel need eliminating. I have similar feelings about that sort of person. I think some folks can't stand the thought that there might be a creature in their own backyard that is cleverer than they are.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

LOL.

I love birds- all types of birds. If they choose to eat one another, that's their business and I think we should let them get on with it.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Doesn't it just!

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

I cannot see your comments here. Whether I hit the "reply" option or the "comments" option, this is what comes up.
I wanted to say that I dont believe cats kill that many birds after all. I have seen cats stalk birds and when the cat leaps, the bird flies off and kitty cannot follow. It would have to be a very slow bird indeed to fall into the claws of a cat. Cats prefer to hunt on the ground, so you would seldom find a cat climbing a tree in order to get a bird. Well fed house cats could care less about wild "poultry" for dinner, but they do instictively chase after things that move about suddenly. And they often miss.

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

Once I entered my comment, all of the other comments appeared. So, just ignore the first two sentences of my post...

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

We have several species of hawks and no aristocracy. Those who keep chickens and such despise them, for reasons obvious. I find them truly magnificent, even the more questionable characters like Cooper's hawks, which have a taste for songbirds in particular. We also have bald and golden eagles, too.

We don't have magpies, but have plenty of one of their colorful cousins: blue jays. They are also beautiful and also just that hard to love. They're loud and aggressive, driving other birds from the feeding station, and can empty a feeder in short order too, shoveling the less desirable seed over the side in order to get at the sunflower seeds they prefer. And they're highly intelligent, as birds go, which I imagine does not make them any friends, either.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

According to the BBC, domestic cats kill 55 million birds in Britain every year. The figure for the USA must be many times greater.

I've owned cats. They're clever and effective predators.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Now you've got me singing George Harrison's Blue Jay Way in my head.

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

Heh. There are worse things to have in one's head, I'm sure.

I should also add that I like blue jays and all the rest of the crow family, too. I'm especially fond of ravens, but they are so shy that one seldom sees them, though there are quite a few around these parts.

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

Actually, they are less effective than one might think: only one in seven attempts results in a kill, on average. The ratio is roughly the same for big cats in the wild too, as I recall.

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

Lately over here not too many of us are letting cats roam free any more. We have wild coyotes roaming in cities, and they attack dogs and cats, and sometimes even a small child. Also hawks and falcons are making their nests in skyscrapers and towers and steeples. Hawks kill hundreds if not thousands of pigeons and squirrels and perhaps ducks - and maybe cats and other more desirable birds than pigeons and seagulls. We welcome them in the city as a means of controlling the pigeon, rat and squirrel populations.
But sadly, as I stated above, our kitties are mostly housebound now.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

I've heard of them going for babies, but not doing the real predator thing. I had a sparrowhawk pluck a sparrow off the feeder just next to my ear a few weeks back.

[wyrmwwd.livejournal.com]

Good post! I totally agree with you, although I don't think I had thought it out quite like that before. There are a lot of people who absolutely hate pigeons, but sometimes, when one lives in a city, pigeons may be the only wildlife one gets to see. And actually, they are really quite pretty, with those iridescent feathers. Yes, I understand they poop all over, but so do we, in our own way. So... anyway... thank you for sharing.