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Magpies vandalising plants in pots?

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  • tui34tui34 Posts: 3,493
    I cannot have anything green exposed in my garden such as:  lettuces, cabbage and winter brassica, spinach etc.  So invest in netting (over hoops which keeps the white butterfly at bay,too)  
    A good hoeing is worth two waterings.

  • PoppypussPoppypuss Posts: 143
    Last spring I mulched an outside container with lovely glittery glass stones. Needless to say they have disappeared from the pot but I keep coming across the odd one when mowing the grass or in borders under the trees. I’d love to see the nest of my magpies!
  • sampullmansampullman Posts: 30
    Magpies and especially fledglings are unnecessarily destructive. Every year they nest in a field across from my house and in June I get inundated with them. Yesterday my 90 year old (dementia suffering) mother watched them rip a baby rabbit to bits on the lawn and I found another at the back of the house with it's stomach spread all over the patio. I have 3 tame robins that I feed but they have gone into hiding and all day long I hear the horrible noise of the magpies chattering excitedly like a football rattle.

    I've never killed a bird but it's a good job they are protected and I don't know how to shoot a gun. 
  • AnniDAnniD Posts: 12,585
    Nature eh ? What a PITA it is. I speak as someone woken by pigeons at the crack of dawn. 
    My thoughts were murderous. 
  • sampullmansampullman Posts: 30
    I managed to get rid of my Pigeon problem. At first I thought it was cute when one cheekily followed me into the garage to take seed from my hand and when he brought a mate along a few days later I felt like Dr Doolittle. Unfortunately word got around and a week later I had flocks of them stalking me like a Hitchcock film.

    I tried spraying them with the garden hose but after a while I'm sure they came along for a free shower as they seemed to spread their wings and weren't the least bit bothered.

    I then purchased a Nerf gun with foam bullets that whistle when they are flying through the air. I've never managed to hit a pigeon but have lost plenty of bullets in the gutters.

    The pigeons have now totally disappeared and I've learnt a lesson on what kind of friends to make. So I'm now pigeonless and wiser.

    I always wanted a Nerf gun anyway.
  • young codgeryoung codger Posts: 543
    I have 3 tame robins that I feed but they have gone into hiding 

    This is the one thing that I find particularly disappointing. I used to see plenty of  song birds in the garden up until a few years ago. I perceive them as the 'garden bully'.

    They will eat just about anything, and they obviously eat more than the other garden birds. The only species I see now is the occasional visit of a blackbird and a fleeting visit of a Robin.
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    edited June 2020
    A magpie caught a mouse on my patio. I'd rather have the magpies.
    A local cat owner must have moved away. I haven't seen a cat for a few months so I'm glad they're taking up the slack😊
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • I don't understand the confusion here. They're obviously getting you back because you stopped feeding them.
  • I managed to get rid of my Pigeon problem. At first I thought it was cute when one cheekily followed me into the garage to take seed from my hand and when he brought a mate along a few days later I felt like Dr Doolittle. Unfortunately word got around and a week later I had flocks of them stalking me like a Hitchcock film.

    I tried spraying them with the garden hose but after a while I'm sure they came along for a free shower as they seemed to spread their wings and weren't the least bit bothered.

    I then purchased a Nerf gun with foam bullets that whistle when they are flying through the air. I've never managed to hit a pigeon but have lost plenty of bullets in the gutters.

    The pigeons have now totally disappeared and I've learnt a lesson on what kind of friends to make. So I'm now pigeonless and wiser.

    I always wanted a Nerf gun anyway.
    Lol. I wonder if it will work on the crows invading my magpies' territory.
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    I don't understand the confusion here. They're obviously getting you back because you stopped feeding them.
     :* 
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
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