Flight of the magpie

Each morning on my way to work, the Royal Park magpie and I exchange greetings.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• bicycle
• magpie
• attack
• bird
• swoop

[IssMeinHirn]

Hahah. Nice. Are you riding or walking? I remeber one from my childhood that would allow us to pass if we walked our bikes, but as soon as we rode he'd unleash the fury.

[tehcookiemon]

I had trouble replying, but will try again:

I'm riding, it leaves the pedestrians and golfers alone (which I imagine is a very wise move), so following your observation the next time it attacked I hopped off my bike and started walking too see how it handled that... it didn't appear to make a difference with this bird :)

I imagine it would make a difference if I entered the park walking.

[username13245100]

hahahah this vid made me laugh so hard! the music is perfect!

[paultmckay]

i get swooped at this location too - that bird must have a busy spring eh

[TravvyG]

Wonder if their are Glover videos? Mite YouTube it haha. Magpies are funny specially when the miss judge something at full swoop and crash into it lol

[tehcookiemon]

I take that back, it connected solidly today, though I suspect the idiot bird simply misjudged and crashed.

On the chance that it was intentional and a taste of hormones to come, I'll start filming again whenever I pass through there.

[tehcookiemon]

Being attacked was originally quite confronting and startling (hence the stick), but when trying to film it I'd be hoping for a swoop, and it doesn't understand I have a helmet and wrap-around glasses, so I was quite safe. Your magpies might be more aggressive than this one, but it turned out this one isn't even touching me and can be ignored completely - this wasn't initially clear as there's a sharp noise when it swoops, and I'm still not sure what that is - seems too loud for a beak snapping.

[tehcookiemon]

I have a camera on the bike, and when it started swooping I added a back-facing helmet mount so I could switch the camera there when riding through the park.

I know of two deterents to magpies, painting eyes on the back of the helmet (or all over the helmet) is one, but I haven't tried that. Last year I carried a stick pointing upwards, I think the idea is it can't get too close to you or it'll wing the stick, it didn't attack when I carried a stick, but perhaps that was the end of the season.