Magpies

[bogydave]

Magpies love meat trimmings.

 

[nate379]

They are mean bastards usually! My friend would feed his dogs outside and the magpipes would attack the dogs for the food!

 

[fossil]

40 years ago when I was 40 years younger, the farmers in Idaho encouraged us crazy young dudes to shoot all the Magpies we wanted to shoot. They did a lot of damage, and the farmers considered them nothing but airborne rodents. No idea whether or not shooting them was legal, but shoot them we did. A lot.

 

[bogydave]

40 years ago when I was 40 years younger, the farmers in Idaho encouraged us crazy young dudes to shoot all the Magpies we wanted to shoot. They did a lot of damage, and the farmers considered them nothing but airborne rodents. No idea whether or not shooting them was legal, but shoot them we did. A lot.

Not sure what they do.
To me , they seem to be pretty & smart.
Have feed them scraps thru the winters for many years.
Magpies on the back deck, chickadees out front.

Ravens get left over Turkey carcasses & sometimes come to the back deck for the larger meat scraps.

Nice to have a few birds around thru winter.
I have no reason to be killing them

 

[fossil]

You said Magpie, I told my one and only Magpie story. Nothing more than that. I haven't killed a Magpie (or really much of anything else) for 40 years. I like birds (and most other animals). As I recall, the farmers suffered a lot of crop damage from the Magpies, I guess like corn farmers do from Crows (hence scarecrows), and Fruit growers from Jays and who knows what else. We'd ask the farmers if it was OK to hunt doves or something on their property, and they would quite often say something like, "Yes, and while you're at it, if you see a Magpie shoot it". I've never been a farmer or rancher or grower, so I've no real strong opinion either way about any of these birds, but I know some folks do. I s'pose if I made my living and provided for my family based on some sort of crop yield, I'd be pretty hostile to any critter that routinely threatened my livelihood.

 

[fishingpol]

Putting meat scraps out for the birds...I had a good chuckle. The only other person I've ever read of feeding meat scraps to birds was Richard Proenneke.

 

[yooperdave]

Nice pics, as usual, Dave. Hey, wait a minute! Last week was a pic of a moose by the mailbox, this week a pic of some meat scraps? Hmmm.....

 

[Brokenwing]

Nice pics, as usual, Dave. Hey, wait a minute! Last week was a pic of a moose by the mailbox, this week a pic of some meat scraps? Hmmm.....

lmao, I see a correlation here, I think that moose did not make it home lol!

 

[Adios Pantalones]

First magpies I ever saw were in England. They have a poem about the number of magpies, and what the number means- good luck or bad.

Anyway- most people I've met where magpies live are annoyed by them, and most that are from elsewhere seem amused/fascinated by them (I think they're very cool). Thanks for the pics