I Love Magpies

  • Hey Guest, Early bird pricing on the Summer Moot (29th July - 10th August) available until April 6th, we'd love you to come. PLEASE CLICK HERE to early bird price and get more information.

treadlightly

Full Member
Jan 29, 2007
2,692
3
65
Powys
Don't you just love them too? They're intelligent, inquisitive, successful...and they don't suffer from post industrial angst. :)
 
Last edited:

gabrielsdad

Need to contact Admin...
Feb 6, 2012
441
0
north staffs
I used to see a lad who was about 15 when i was about 5-6. He used to ride round town with a magpie on his bmx handle bars. Hed helped it when he found it injured and it never really left. It lived in trees near his house. Whenever he came outside the maggie would swoop down to see him. And either perch on his handle bars or fly along with him. Coolest bond id seen with a wild animal.
 

John Fenna

Lifetime Member & Maker
Oct 7, 2006
23,109
2,843
66
Pembrokeshire
Hmmmm - so you are playing Cooch to Jimbo75's Wal eh?

If you do not get the reference I guess you have never read the "Footrot Flats" strip .... Google it!
 

Ivan...

Ex member
Jul 28, 2011
1,771
0
Dartmoor
I personally don't like them, and over the years have shot a few, but now i only kill something, if i am going to eat it, but saying that, back when i was a lad, i spent many a happy hour with blackthorn scratches on my arms, climbing trees to see what the crafty so and so's had pinched from window cill's (back in the day, when all washing up was done by hand, and the lady of the house used to remove her wedding band, and engagement ring to wash up and left it on on the cill, with the window open) Mainly silver paper and other non valuable shiny things, but a couple of times, i literally struck gold!

Devil of a nest to get into from memory.

Oh and the call above your head, early in the morning, is not particulary nice.

Ivan...
 

boatman

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Feb 20, 2007
2,444
4
77
Cornwall
I hope they are greeted by "Good day Captain or Mr Magpie" or whatever is your custom locally. They can foretell the future,
1 for sorrow
2 for joy
3 for a girl
4 for a boy
5 for silver
6 for gold
7 for a secret never to be told
8 for Heaven
9 for hell
10 for the heart you know so well.
 

Ivan...

Ex member
Jul 28, 2011
1,771
0
Dartmoor
I had a girlfriend, that always used to salute them!

Oh! I thought.
8 A wish.
9 A kiss.
10 Is a bird you must not miss?

Or maybe it was the theme tune to a tv show, when i was a kid.

Ivan...
 

treadlightly

Full Member
Jan 29, 2007
2,692
3
65
Powys
I hope they are greeted by "Good day Captain or Mr Magpie" or whatever is your custom locally. They can foretell the future,
1 for sorrow
2 for joy
3 for a girl
4 for a boy
5 for silver
6 for gold
7 for a secret never to be told
8 for Heaven
9 for hell
10 for the heart you know so well.


If I see a single magpie on my travels, I try and walk the other way or avoid passing it (one for sorrow). As for their singing, not everyone can be Caruso
 

boatman

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Feb 20, 2007
2,444
4
77
Cornwall
The single for sorrow is negated by calling out "Good day cap'n" or whatever. I love superstitions as an echo of our past.
 

Toddy

Mod
Mod
Jan 21, 2005
38,937
4,570
S. Lanarkshire
No, I'm no fan of the sleekit beasts.

One for sorrow
Two for mirth
Three for a funeral
Four for a birth
Five for heaven
Six for hell
Seven's the the De'il his ane sel',


There are others, but that one's well known.

I know they're clever birds, but more of them survive because we feed them (inadvertantly usually) and with their 'gang' / family structure they literally devour the hedgerow nests of every other bird they can reach. They have driven the crows out here and they've attacked the squirrels dreys so often now that the squirrel numbers have plummeted too. They only manage such damage because they do work as a mob and a nesting pair have very little defence against them.

There are just too many of them around now.

M
 

Harvestman

Bushcrafter through and through
May 11, 2007
8,656
26
55
Pontypool, Wales, Uk
Hmm, co-operative creature with a gang structure, far too many of them and they destroy every other species. Reminds me of a large bipedal mammal... the name will come to me in a minute...

:rolleyes:
 

BCUK Shop

We have a a number of knives, T-Shirts and other items for sale.

SHOP HERE