Australia

It begins.

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Yep!

I heard a magpie territorial two-tone warning call yesterday and copped a 'low pass'.

Funny thing is, the bird perched on a nearby fence and looked really embarrassed and didn't continue swooping. Makes me wonder if he recognised me and the doggo after the first run.

(It's very possible/likely that I'm anthropomorphising the bird, but I've lived here for twenty years, and get on really well with the magpies - i.e. I whistle tunes to them and they carroll and pipe along with gay abandon completely shaming my lame efforts)

Meanwhile, the noisy miners have been really aggro this year, bombing and clacking their beaks at me and Ivan. He's pretty stoic about it and just ignores them. (I've never had any physical contact from one of them and pretty much ignore them too).

Edited to add: You got a genuine 'laugh out loud' from me with that picture Arth...
 
I love the magpies in Garema Place. They're well-acclimated to the presence of humans and just tootle around being cool all the time. I love magpies in general actually. It's just for a few weeks in the spring that some of them turn into complete ********.
 
We have a mated pair of maggies in the trees in our yard. They have learned our faces and do not swoop, and we have a comfortable relationship now. Instead, they like to wander our lush lawns (it's a wet climate here up the mountains) and grab spring-time insects and other yummy stuff.

Best time for them is when I mow the grass. They have become so "tame" that they now walk just behind me gobbling the exposed goodies as I go. They don't mind me or the sound of the mower. And when I stop moving, the pair of them stand there and look at me with an expression of "Well, get on with it, why don't you! We're hungry!"
 
Last year around this time we had a few magpies relentlessly attacking a kookaburra who was nesting nearby, and who we were feeding. They are the bullies of the bird world.

At my school crossing there are a few practicing their swoops. Not yet attacking as it’s probably not quite nesting time. But I’m thinking I will have to extend my Stop sign as far as I can and hold it up a bit higher.
 
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lionking said:
Last year around this time we had a few magpies relentlessly attacking a kookaburra who was nesting nearby, and who we were feeding. They are the bullies of the bird world.

At my school crossing there are a few practicing their swoops. Not yet attacking as it’s probably not quite nesting time. But I’m thinking I will have to extend my Stop sign as far as I can and hold it up a bit higher.
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Good thinking. I've often heard that magpies attack the highest point, whatever that may be. (Made the mistake of holding one hand up once and received a nipped finger for my trouble.)

For the non-Australians, here is a list of bird attacks in terms of severity:

1. New Hollands (angry noises, occasional fluttering in face)
2. Noisy Miners (loud staccato beak clacking, fast swoops)
3. Magpies* (terrifying swoops and calls, occasionally cuts and bruises delivered by beak and claw)
4. Emu (Holy crap! That bird just kicked me in the guts and I need new clothing... for several reasons)
5. Wedge-Tailed Eagle. (I was just attacked by an angry aeroplane! I have no idea how I survived)
6. Cassowary** (Oh ****. I'm dead)

* Magpies could be at the highest end of the list because of the frequency of attacks, and are truly terrifying when swooping. Youtube is full of videos about them, this one will do:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGGTcYfrEZU

** In Australia, Cassowaries are relatively rare, quite limited in their range, and typically only attack under specific circumstances, for example trying to get close to their chicks. Defence is quite easy, hold something between you and the bird, and back away. (Ideally something reasonably big, like a back-pack or leafy branch. They are heavier than Emus and their kicks are devastating.
 
novaphile said:
Good thinking. I've often heard that magpies attack the highest point, whatever that may be. (Made the mistake of holding one hand up once and received a nipped finger for my trouble.)

For the non-Australians, here is a list of bird attacks in terms of severity:

1. New Hollands (angry noises, occasional fluttering in face)
2. Noisy Miners (loud staccato beak clacking, fast swoops)
3. Magpies* (terrifying swoops and calls, occasionally cuts and bruises delivered by beak and claw)
4. Emu (Holy crap! That bird just kicked me in the guts and I need new clothing... for several reasons)
5. Wedge-Tailed Eagle. (I was just attacked by an angry aeroplane! I have no idea how I survived)
6. Cassowary** (Oh ****. I'm dead)

* Magpies could be at the highest end of the list because of the frequency of attacks, and are truly terrifying when swooping. Youtube is full of videos about them, this one will do:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGGTcYfrEZU

** In Australia, Cassowaries are relatively rare, quite limited in their range, and typically only attack under specific circumstances, for example trying to get close to their chicks. Defence is quite easy, hold something between you and the bird, and back away. (Ideally something reasonably big, like a back-pack or leafy branch. They are heavier than Emus and their kicks are devastating.
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Plovers are nasty buggers too:

https://nt.gov.au/environment/anima...s or plovers (Vanellus,and the chicks can fly.

Otherwise if you are swooped you can do any of the following:

avoid plovers during breeding season by taking a different route
travel in groups plovers tend to swoop individuals
wear a hat
hold or wave a stick or flag above your head
if you are riding a bike get off it and walk through the area
put up warning signs for others who may not be aware that there are swooping birds in the area.
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I witnessed a bit of a war in Haig Park over the weekend. A small group of magpies - I think it was probably a family group, maybe three or four - were skirmishing with a larger group of what I think were white-winged choughs. The choughs were foraging on the ground, and they clustered together to hold off the magpies' aerial attacks. Eventually they managed to get under cover where they happily continued gorging on worms and bugs, safe from the peril from the air. The magpies moved on.
 
In related news, we have our own official Big Thing, and it's right outside the door to my office building.

Giant magpie swoops in to join Australia's top 'big things' on collectible coins from Royal Australian Mint

When Artist Yanni Pounartzis was designing his chip-loving magpie sculpture to command Canberra's CBD, he never expected it to be recognised as one of Australia's "big things".

Australia's love of giant outdoor sculptures has seen hundreds of big things pop up in regional towns and along highways across the nation since the 1960s.

And just 18 months after landing in the capital, Big Swoop has been recognised as one of the nation's top 10 big things in a new Royal Australian Mint coin series.

"I'm in disbelief. He [Big Swoop] won't go away, and he won't stop receiving attention," Pounartzis said.

"It was just an idea, a funny, ironic idea.

"When you release an idea to the community, then they decide what it becomes, so that's been really nice to see where he's ended up."
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Swooping magpies spark calls to protect eyes after Victorian cyclist injured

Christiaan Nyssen knows he is lucky to still be able to see.

The Sunbury man sustained serious injury to one of his eyes when he was attacked by a magpie while cycling in Yarrawonga in November, 2021.

The attack happened on one of the few cycling trips when he had left his sunglasses at home.

"I have been attacked countless times and don't have a fear of the birds, but I always have glasses on," Mr Nyssen said.

"This bird turned around and went straight for the eye, did a backflip and hit me right in the eye again.

"A neighbour said I was the fifth person to be attacked."
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arthwollipot said:
Swooping magpies spark calls to protect eyes after Victorian cyclist injured
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Absolutely horrifying.

I never ride without eye protection, and I have it all, including two pairs of safety glasses (yellow lenses and clear lenses) in my top-of-rack bag. (I usually ride with my Rudi Projects on, those other two are just backups).

This is not because of magpies, but because I've been hit in the face by so many things including wheel weights, insects, random detritus kicked up by vehicles and many hapless birds that just happened to be crossing my path at the same time. Probably the saddest moment for me, was riding across a railway bridge and I was hit on my helmet by a rainbow lorrikeet. Damn near knocked me out and killed the poor bird. It was just one of a group flying across the bridge from the other side, and it failed to dodge. (I ducked, but not enough to count)

My heart goes out to Mr Nyssen.
 
Kangaroo attack in St Arnaud leaves 74-year-old with 'slipper full of blood and pants half torn off'

A 74-year-old St Arnaud man has been left scarred and his clothing seriously torn after a kangaroo attack.

Brian O'Donnell said he was alone, riding a small Honda motorcycle across his small farming property to check on a cow that was due to give birth on Saturday night when a lone male kangaroo began following him.

Rather than jumping the fence toward another group of kangaroos, the large male, which Mr O'Donnell estimated to be seven feet, or 2.1 metres tall, jumped into a dam and "started growling and jumping up and down".

I started to move away slowly on the bike," Mr O'Donnell said.

"Next thing I know he was on top of me."
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arthwollipot said:
Kangaroo attack in St Arnaud leaves 74-year-old with 'slipper full of blood and pants half torn off'
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Leaving work one evening in Tuggeranong, I stepped out of the undercroft car park, on my way to the outside car park and my car. Unfortunately there was a mob of kangaroos chomping on the lawns, and the next thing I knew, I had a full sized adult male towering over me, and flexing his muscles.

I do not doubt Mr O'Donnell's description.

Edited to add:

NB. I was looking at an Eastern Grey kangaroo, Red kangaroos are typically larger.
 
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