We are overrun with the wretched things. Not that I dislike them per se, but there were a dozen flapping around the bird feeders earlier and no sign of other garden birds. They must frighten everything else off. It's been like this for at least a fortnight.
Maybe it's the grub - the last seed the boss bought was a 7kg bag from Aldi. There are some fat balls as well. Maybe all the little ones have fallen off the perch with clogged arteries.
Is it just here?
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we get a lot of magpies in the inner city near me anyway, austerity measures know no bounds probably
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Magpies were a plague at one point but the jackdaws have seen them off too. They are very clever and seem to act in concert. They've also learned to use the feeders - they started off just scouring the ground for the fallen bits.
I wouldn't be surprised to find they could pass a finance GCSE.
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We've observed up to half a dozen at a time in and around the garden over the winter period. RSPB describes them as communal birds, roosting in groups, sometimes with Crows or Rooks.
Tend to frighten off the various Tits but Starlings are undeterred.
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Jackdaws not that common around here although there a few in the small wood near my allotment.
Both magpies and crows seem to have quite a good reasoning ability. I watched a group of seven magpies deal with the fat-balls in a feeder hanging from a tree in my garden last week. Their strategy was for one of the birds to rip large lumps from the fat-balls and let them fall to the ground for the remaining birds to eat. The clever thing was that they seemed to be taking it in turns to do the work so all would benefit.
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>> Magpies were a plague at one point but the jackdaws have seen them off too.
>> They are very clever and seem to act in concert. They've also learned to use
>> the feeders - they started off just scouring the ground for the fallen bits.
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>> I wouldn't be surprised to find they could pass a finance GCSE.
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I believe they set the exam questions..
Last edited by: madf on Thu 14 Feb 13 at 12:33
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>> I believe they set the exam questions..
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If 4 and 20 blackbirds are baked in a pie, what proportion of the pie will contain horsemeat?
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>> We are overrun with the wretched things.
Get a feeding cage. I have one with a flap at the top that swings open to put the food in. I got it to stop wood pigeons and collared doves who will eat you out of house and home. Unfortunately it stops blackbirds which I don't have a problem with, but all the small birds are able to feed undeterred. In fact the robins actually seen to enjoy goading the pigeons by standing inside and watch them pace around the cage incessantly.
tinyurl.com/crjonvj
I don't have hanging feeders anymore as the pigeons and doves will spend all day grazing around the bottom. I don't want to encourage them, there are enough around as it is.
I have bird favouritism.
Jackdaws I don't mind. Rooks are great birds. I love watching them on a blustery day. They really enjoy soaring in the wind. In the summer late evenings hundreds of them will sit in the fields silently, then at some signal they will rise up and fly in a long trail to their roosting trees. You can hear the rushing sound of their wings as they fly overhead. I can imagine they have been doing this for thousands of years irrespective of human 'progress'. It gives a sort of comforting permanence to life.
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>> tinyurl.com/crjonvj
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Puts on Yorkshire hat -
"HOW MUCH"
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They are much the most personable of the British crows. A young cousin-in-law used to have a tame one that sat on his shoulder tweaking his ear and could talk (a bit). It flew off one day and joined its wild brethren never to be seen again, like the young carrion crow that befriended us a couple of years ago (Zero kindly helped me post photos) which also joined its brethren. However it returned as an adult and kept pecking on windows and peering into the house for a day or so.
A large flock of jackdaws alighted in the trees near the house last autumn, but they soon left and haven't come back.
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I have 6-8 regular magpies, 2 Jays, 6-8 blue tits, a woodpecker and a kind of grouse or pheasant thing. And several large black carrion that I couldn't name either. And about 30-ish sparrows. I feed them everyday and watch them or 'observe' them, up to an hour depending on work. I've learned their timetable and habits and they have learned mine.
About 5 days ago, they all vanished, only the blue tits remain. Even the sparrows have gone. I couldn't work it out, was it temperature or weather or has a cat appeared or has someone fed them better food? And then it slowly dawned on me yesterday - my son's huge, well-dressed snow man may have become a scare crow. A scare snow perhaps. I wonder if their familiar environment has changed. Anyway, his head fell off a few hours ago (not my fault guv, honest), but he's melting and I have reclaimed my hat, scarf and gloves and hopefully the squadron will return.
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I had a pair of them last spring dropping sticks down one of the ventilation shafts in the chimney. From the bedroom that the shaft serves, I could here them chattering away. It took me a while to work out what was happening, and it was only when i noticed them always hanging around the chimney that I realised what they were doing.
So I got a piece of weld mesh and a big rock, climbed up the roof and covered the chimney. They were obviously watching as they never returned that day. But the next day they were back and spent all day trying to remove the mesh. Then they woke me the following day with the noise they were making trying to get back in the chimney, so I shot them.
But they had obviously dropped more than just sticks down there, as when the weather warmed up I had an infestation of flies coming through the vent in the bedroom.
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>> I have 6-8 regular magpies, 2 Jays, 6-8 blue tits, a woodpecker and a kind
>> of grouse or pheasant thing.
Shoot all but two of the tits, and keep the cock
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pheasant.
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I would shoot the cock and hang on to the tits!
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Shoot 'em MT, population like this they'll kill every fledgling songbird in the area this spring.
2 Maggies have moved in nearby, i'll let them be till the songbirds start mating (keeping the other Maggies away for the time being) then deal with 'em when they attack the Finches in our trees.
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Colossal fat magpie in one of the trees here yesterday, southern end of the Islington ridge. I'm superstitious about them and saluted anxiously through the window, muttering stuff.
His equally obese missus turned up soon after that. Joy! They sloped off in the general direction of Sadlers Wells.
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Surely one of the most striking British birds, especially in flight - Always a joy to watch. They mate for life but in the winter they form into groups. Seven is the most I have seen together this year
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>>Surely one of the most striking British birds
S'right, quite colourful if studied close up with bi-noculars, Jays are better though IMHO.
I have a resident loner Magpie, the Collared Doves shoo him/her away from the feeder, quite funny to see, they sort of charge him, head down, scurrying along with their little legs going ten-to-the-dozen, bless.
:}
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Jackdaws - zookeeper
