I NEVER NEW THAT !

[dseabass]

not really a hint or tip,just a we snippet of info that came up while bletherin to the mates the other day,we were reminising about hobbies we had as youngsters and i mentioned about collecting birds eggs , i know this is dangerous ground ,, but i was young and it seemed like a good idea at the time ,,anyway a was telling them about the fright i got once when i put my hand into what i thought was a magpies nest only to feel wee furry creatures--- it was a squirrels drey and i nearly fell out the tree,,,,
now the bit i was a bit blown away by ---- my mate says no MAGPIES in the highlands or even much by edinburgh/glasgow ,,, im like BULLSHIT convinced ive seen them , but then i thought about it and realised in the twelve yrs or so since movin to inverness ," im originally from clydebank" i actually havnt seen any --started a wee debate at work askin them if theyd seen one ,,nearly all of them said they had ,,,BUT , they could not remember if it was up here or further south
so there ye go my wee mystery -- i never even knew they were not a heilan burd  ,, every days a school day
ps my nestin thing never lasted that long ,

[Wildfisher]

Stacks of magpies up here.

[Clan Ford]

Pretty much none in Perthshire, I suspect they were blasted to oblivion once upon a fairly recent time ago.

Plenty round Crieff must just be east Perthshire they give a miss?

My wife is a district nurse and couple of years back she drove out to the "big House" on one of the estates round here, to visit a patient.  When she pulled up at the door she was greated to the sound of gun fire coming from inside the house :shock:  Not sure what to do, she hovered round outside until the wife came out and explained that her husband was taking a potshot at a magpipe up the chimney :lol:

Norm   

[Noddy]

Sparrows are making a big come back here in renfrewshire, even though the magpies are still about.   We have a couple blackbirds nesting in the garden each year, the noise is horrendous at times as blackbirds chase off the magpies.  The last two years we have blue tits nesting in the garden and had some coal tits feeding at the bird table.We are less than than a mile from the end of the runway at Glasgow airport

[doogs]

Hunners in my garden (East lothian)

[Wildfisher]

Apparently the demise of the humble speug has more to do with you and I than it does with magpies. Modern houses and improvements to older properties leave less scope for the old sparra to set up home. No nooks and crannies

As with fish, the main issue is habitat

[shanksi]

In my bit of Weegieland probably more magpies than any other bird.  Very few sparrows and same goes for starlings.  Remember years ago you used to see huge flocks of starlings in the city centre and elswhere at night heading for their roosts.
Had a laugh at the weekend watching one of the fox cubs we have at the bottom of the garden trying to catch a magpie which just sat on a fence post and screeched at the cub.

shanksi

[IrishFloatTube]

.....Its a bit of a punk rocker.....

:lol:

[Wildfisher]

Magpies are one of my favourite birds. Highly intelligent. They are hilarious to watch, I like the way they jump about, they look like they are enjoying themselves. They are very local in distribution. Where I grew up in the Arbroath area I cannot recall every seeing one, around Aberdeen there are loads of them

[burnie]

Angus is Magpie free,only seen 2 in 4 years,but as the estates kill everything that might threaten grouse I'm unsure if that's a natural thing.All the other corvids are here,bar the Chough,Lots of spadgers too.