Magpies

[Mrs Keeps]

I have always fed the birds in my garden, unfortunately of late the garden has been taken over by a family of 4 Magpies, consequently I have not seen the Wrens or Blue Tits, although the Doves two blackbird families and the Wood Pigeons have stayed!

 

Should I stop putting out food in an effort to dissuade the Magpies or will they just get bored and go away?

 

Please help..............

 

x

[Big J R]

Same here Mrs Keeps.

 

We seems to have beeen swamped with magpies this year and the smaller birds are shunning the feeders and bird bath. In the past, I've seen magpies swoop down and take fledgelings straight off the lawn. Attractive, but vicious and noisy birds.

 

The only other regular visitors at the moment are woodies.

 

No collared doves this year either.

[Dagger03]

Keep putting the food out - at this time of year there is other food readily available and blue tits and great tits will always come back again if they know there is food in the feeders. Wrens are very secretive birds, so you might not know they are still around.

 

Magpies cannot easily get into blue / great tits nests so I would not worry too much.

[Mrs Keeps]

Thanks for the advice - seems wherever you go now you are noticing more and more bigger birds, magpies, crows and especially the rooks!

 

x

[Big J R]

This morning after an early morning shower, some of the smaller birds dared to venture on the feeders.

 

I heard the clacking call of a couple of magpies in the large oak-tree at the end of the garden.

 

Seconds later, the pair descended to the fence, scattering every feeding bird.

 

They had their fill and departed, leaving an empty garden.

 

As much as I love ALL wild-life, I am starting to dislike magpies intensely.

[Mrs Keeps]

Saw the Wren & Robin this morning, few sparrows but the Tits & Green finches are nowhere to be seen

 

As to the Magpies it seems that once they take a liking to a garden they are here to stay - went on another forum where I was advised to trap them (humanely) and remove them to another area!

Has anyone heard of this before? Don't think that I could do this - it also seems a lot of trouble for anyone to go to as you can't odds others taking over once the first pair have gone!

[Big J R]

With just one pair, I suppose trapping is fine, but we have about three or four pairs residing locally at the moment.

 

About three years ago, it was Jays that were the problem. Another beautiful bird, but extremely aggressive. I've only seen about one this year.

[Mrs Keeps]

We had two Jays in the garden up until two weeks ago, we have got quite a few around here, they first came to the table in April and although aggressive they did not have too much impact on the smaller birds, once the Jays left the garden the Tits/Finches etc came straight back - unfortunately the Magpies have had a longer lasting effect

 

Seems that we'll just have to wait it out - hopefully they wont like the neighbours and will move on

 

 

[Dagger03]

>>>went on another forum where I was advised to trap them (humanely) and remove them to another area!

 

Suggest you keep well away from that forum - the suggestion is ridiculous.

 

Don't worry too much about the lack of greenfinch - they tend to move around in flocks so you are not likely to get them all the time in one place. Jays too tend to move around a bit.

 

Move your feeders to somewhere where the magpies cannot get to them easily (if possible) - but I doubt very much that magpies have anything to do with the lack of smaller birds - at this time of year they have plenty of alternative food available.

[Mrs Keeps]

Many thanks for everyones input;

 

I have put the hanging feeders in less accessable places, put the ground feeders under the bushes and am not putting out much on the tables - hopefully they will move on eventually.

 

x

[Big J R]

Whilst I appreciate that magpies have an abundance of food this year, they tend to sit in a flock of up to about 6 in the trees near our garden and issue that terrible clacking alarm call in the morning for several minutes which seems to scare the smaller birds away.

[Eastside Urchin]

sent you a pm already but it is basically the same as everyone elses comments.

There are feeders available for smaller birds which only ones the size of sparrows & smaller can get but you may have to look around for these.Try local garden centres or RSPB reserves

[Mrs Keeps]

Thanks UM, got some of those from the local RHS garden shop - they do a nice line in feeders.

 

On a brighter note the Blue Tits were back this morning

 

x

[I am Spartacus]

Seems strange but I quite liked the increase in Magpies this year as they have caused about 5 nesting pairs of Seagulls to moveon. It is part of the peril of living on the coast that we have to put up with Seagulls especially with thier squaking which can start as the sun rises and carry on to dusk. However, whatmakes matters worse is there is some kind of bird of prey about after there chicks on the roofs at the moment.

[Eastside Urchin]

probably a sparrowhawk

[Big J R]

Our garden was invaded by a flock of jackdaws a couple of days ago.

 

They even frightened the magpies away for a while.