Magpies eating walnuts

[Kadushu]

Anyone else witnessed this before? 2 things struck me as notable :
1. The magpie dug into the lawn to retrieve a walnut a squirrel had put there. It obviously had an idea of what to look for and how to find it.
2. The magpie then hammered away at the walnut like a woodpecker which I wasn't convinced would work considering how hard the shell is. After a couple of minutes persistence paid off and it was pulling out chunks of the inside.

I know magpies are intelligent but this seemed quite impressive.

 

[Toddy]

They're not daft. They watch, and they remember.
So, I'm not surprised that it knew where to find the squirrel's cache.

Squirrels are inclined to bite out the bit at the bottom of a nut that will grow roots. It stops it developing. Maybe that had happened and the magpie had a point of access sort of thing

 

[Broch]

The Jackdaws drop them onto my son's roof to crack them

 

[Kadushu]

I like the way it held the nut under its foot while it cracked into it. I know they do that with carrion that they're tearing at too and maybe its nutcracking behaviour is an extension of egg eating but even so it seemed outside the usual remit.

 

[demented dale]

Anyone else witnessed this before? 2 things struck me as notable :
1. The magpie dug into the lawn to retrieve a walnut a squirrel had put there. It obviously had an idea of what to look for and how to find it.
2. The magpie then hammered away at the walnut like a woodpecker which I wasn't convinced would work considering how hard the shell is. After a couple of minutes persistence paid off and it was pulling out chunks of the inside.

I know magpies are intelligent but this seemed quite impressive.

I have to compete with the corvids at a walnut tree near me. They get the nuts take them 100 meters and use the road surface to break them open. The guy in the off licence says that crows go behind his shop and do it where they cant be seen. 2024 I got a huge bag full. Last autumn I got just three. DD xxxx