Strange one this. In Angus it is rare to see a magpie. In 60 years I think I have seen one. There are masses of other crows, including jackdaws.
In Aberdeen shire there are masses of magpies yet far fewer jackdaws, especially inland.
Any reasons for this?
Milton Keynes has one of the highest population densities of magpies in the uk. Milton Keynes natural history society has the magpie as its emblem for that reason. apparently all the relatively low, scrubby vegetation on either side of the dual carriageways and lining the roads on the housing estates, combined with plenty of open areas, provides a perfect habitat.
don't know if that sheds any light on the situation up here?
No magpies here either, though I have seen them in Perthshire.
Plenty of Jays here though.
Might it be the cormorants may have eaten all the magpies in Angus? :lol:
Hi,
Just reading this, reminded me of a previous thread on Magpies which interested due to their numbers here in Ireland despite being a more recent blow in. here was my contribution back then.
"Magpies in abundance here in Ireland, although interestingly they are somewhat of a newcomer. Folklore often puts there presence down to Cromwell, the belief being that they came to Ireland with Cromwell and his troops. I have even heard them referred to as Cromwell's Crows.
Although generally happy to blame most ills on Cromwell I think in this instance he is probably innocent, as the first recorded Magpies in Ireland aren't until the 1670's and Cromwell had buggered off home by 1650. The most common view nowadays is that a single flock got blown across in a major storm in the 1670's and that all Irish magpies derive from them"
Nothing changed since then certainly no shortage. In order of numbers though crows around here in decending order would be Rooks, Jackdaws, Magpies, and Grey backs (hoodies) Jay's are an exceptional sighting.
Joe.
Angus has an odd distribution of Corvids, all including the Chough have been recorded in the County in the last decade. I have seen odd Magpies, one in our village a few years ago and frequently see them around "Clatterin Brig" on the way over the Cairn O Mount. Odd ones in Dundee as well. Ravens are found in the Glens, Loch Lee in particular and I saw a crow at Bridge of Dun that looked very much like a "Hoodie". Jays are to be found around the South Esk around Brechin and in Montreathmont Forest.
the magpies must all be in west lothian.there has been a real explosion in magpie numbers.when i was young they were a rare sight but they are everywhere now.they seem to hang around the roads ,maybe thriving on roadkill.
Garry
Garry, the first magpie I ever saw was when I was a teenager visiting relatives near Balerno, Mid Lothian. I still remember it well, a flashing movement of black and white, quite startling when you are not used to it and wondering what the hell it is. :D
Loads of magpies here in Ayrshire, and you always see them on the fringes of the M8 when driving through Glasgow.
They weren't always here in those numbers. I remember when I was a young un :D watching the kids tv programme Magpie wondering why I had never seen one of these striking looking birds it was named after. But we did have loads of Jackdaws then Fred. Not so many now.
Billy
Been an explosion here in Renfrewshire over the last years or so. My take is that the habitat in these "new" towns suits them what with the tree types & heights there off being suitable nesting sites. Maggies as many will know don't nest high & the abundance of Fir planting in new housing areas are about the right height now in many places. That coupled with more people putting out "wild bird feeding stations" attracts them too. Jackdaws here are more common than these used to be.
One thing I will say about the Magpie is that it is a "bad bastard" The pair that visits my garden for food I saw the bigger male kill a young starling, literally pecked it to death.
An attractive bird never the less for all it's bravado
Tight Lines
Not sure I get the distinction between carrion crows and hoodies. Are they not just geographical variants of the same species? Where they overlap the interbreed and produce fertile offspring.
Magpies have greatly increased numerically in some parts of the country, not here though.
I was once driving out of Larne in ulster over the hill to Ballymena and had to stop for a pee. I'd noticed a couple of magpies at some carrion a little further ahead fly off as I got out. As I got back into the car I made a couple of calls on my then new mobile, actually my first, the magpies returned.
As I sat there chatting more magpies turned up, then a couple more, and then more, until there were 16 or so. It turned out that the carrion they were at was a road killed fox. There were so many birds frenzying around this corpse that they actually managed to lift the remains of the fox off the road and onto the verge proper, quite a scene, worthy of Hitchcock. As I drove on past this "tidings" of magpies stayed at their wings and kept chomping and fighting with each other, the white of their plumage red with fox's blood and gore.
Despite not having much experience of magpies I knew they ate carrion, just hadn't pictured them ever being so keen to gather in such numbers or being that vigorous in their culinary habits. That changed my view of magpies, and some :shock:
Hoodies and carrion Crows are distinct varieties of the same species.
Quote from: Buanán on November 27, 2013, 11:59:23 AM
Hoodies and carrion Crows are distinct varieties of the same species.
There's some less distinct looking cross breeds about too, but then there's some sort of colour variations in a lot of birds and troots too for that matter. There's a few odd looking coloured Crows around Angus this past couple of years. The "proper Hoodies" do tend to be to the left of the A9 though.
Great story Willie! :D
I really like crows, top birds, highly intelligent in a birdy sort of way. I do find it a bit odd when we express shock and horror at their predatory nature that is after all their successful survival strategy, then in the next breath we go fishing or shooting for fun! :D
Magpies can have as many as 8 or 10 young in a nest and hang around together untill this sort of time of year in family groups, so not unusual to see large gatherings.
My late Uncle had a pet Carrion Crow when we were kids, he found it after it was blown out of a nest, it eventually went back to the wild. Very tame it would sit on your shoulder like a pirates parrot. I picked up a couple of Rooks when my kids were young, but they never became tame, completely different behavior, Magpies do make pets I am told, but very troublesome ones.
They produce fertile "hybrids" so they are so genetically similar as makes little real difference. The plant world is also full of such examples. In the world of taxonomy lumpers and splitters seldom agree on much and taxa change like the weather . Whatever we believe, I doubt very much that it makes much odds to the crows when they meet up, mate and have kids. If such minute differences were applied to human kind the scientists would quickly be labeled racists.
You are right, nothing in life is set in stone Liam. I have seen plants come and go from species to sub species and some family names changed because of some anal botanist trying to make a name for himself. Cruciferae changed to Brassicaceae, Compositae changed to Asteraceae both great visually descriptive names lost. These annoyed a lot of plants people. It goes on and will continue to. I suppose now that we have the science of genetic analysis it makes it clearer, but as I said I wonder when the first scientist will start classifying humans the way they do the humble hoodie.
"Now try doing taxonomy on 165 million year old fossils"
Quote from: admin on November 27, 2013, 02:25:40 PM
You are right, nothing in life is set in stone Liam.
I would appluad you Fred if I thought you did it deliberately! :makefun
Quote from: zeolite on November 27, 2013, 03:10:48 PM
I would appluad you Fred if I thought you did it deliberately! :makefun
:roflmao
Quote from: burnie on November 27, 2013, 12:05:14 PM
There's some less distinct looking cross breeds about too, but then there's some sort of colour variations in a lot of birds and troots too for that matter. There's a few odd looking coloured Crows around Angus this past couple of years. The "proper Hoodies" do tend to be to the left of the A9 though.
I've noticed that too.