Guest 657- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 3,037
No Colin not the TV programme!
As some of you know as well as my own menagerie I look after rescued birds and small animals. This evening it looks like I will be getting a baby magpie. It has fallen out of its nest in a busy garage area. The tree it fell out of yesterday is too high for it to be put back into the nest. Parents have since ignored it and it's being hounded by a crow and has now been put in a safe place. Our garden has many visiting magpies and I plan on putting the baby in a large outdoor cage until it can fly (it's about the size of a tennis ball.) Any tips hints? I know many of you are bird lovers/experts and this will be my first magpie.
Guest 690- Registered: 10 Oct 2009
- Posts: 4,150
I guessed it was the bird Jeane, but thank you for thinking of me. I shall not make any comments on magpies here, just to say, we have a variety of birds in our garden, and magpies are not welcome. Got rid of them over the years.
Tell them that I came, and no one answered.
Guest 657- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 3,037
Ha ha ha Colin.
I know magpies can be a problem, they scare the smaller birds, but I can't leave the poor little baby to the rats, foxes and crows.
.
It's eyes are open and it's fully feathered so won't be too long before it can fly anyway.
Guest 657- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 3,037
Guest 653- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,540
Lovely little bird - the magpie looks sweet too.
Roger
Guest 657- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 3,037
Guest 672- Registered: 3 Jun 2008
- Posts: 2,119
Guess what?
I had a Magpie as a kid, so easy to keep.
Any raw meat, they love Liver and maggots. Go for it Jeane.
I have some more photos for you on the sunrise thread.
grass grows by the inches but dies by the feet.
Did it get your goat Ian?
And what's wrong with fresh liver and bacon? Surely you would give it fresh meat, not rotten and maggotty old stuff? I thought you were a nice kind bloke Ian, I'm beginning to wonder now!
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
wonderful pic of the little fellow.
Guest 657- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 3,037
Thanks Ian. He was a bit shocked initially but started cheeping when he saw a visiting magpie in the garden. He is currently eating insect pellets (mixed with a little water) and drinking on his own. Errr liver and maggots
. We have him in a big cage in the conservatory and once he can fly, well we are right next door to a nature reserve so I'm sure he'll make new friends.
Thanks Howard.
Guest 690- Registered: 10 Oct 2009
- Posts: 4,150
Jeane, wait till it starts squarking in the morning when it gets older.
Tell them that I came, and no one answered.
Guest 657- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 3,037
I have 2 cockatiels who think it's funny to squawk at 4:30am!
We live next to a nature reserve and when the dawn chorus starts early in the summer it's a way of life!
Guest 690- Registered: 10 Oct 2009
- Posts: 4,150
I don`t mind the dawn chorus Jeane, it`s the magpie section I hate!
Tell them that I came, and no one answered.
Guest 672- Registered: 3 Jun 2008
- Posts: 2,119
All the while I had my pet Magpie I got blamed for all sorts of things going missing, especially when dad was working on his car, spark plugs, spanners and such like.
6 months after I joined the army dad decided to check the roof and clear the guttering out. He found stuff that had been missing for 2 years. next time I phoned home he apologised.
grass grows by the inches but dies by the feet.
Whilst it`s probably not very PC etc., to say, but given the chance I`d kill these evil birds on sight. I`ve lost count of the number of young blackbirds
and others that they attack and destroy in my back garden every year.
They may look "cute" when born but grow up into something pretty nasty.
I expect even Hitler looked sweet as a two year old!
Guest 657- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 3,037
John, I chase the larger ones out of the garden because they attack other birds but I couldn't leave this poor little fluff ball to the crows or foxes.
He's had a good night and we've named him Sooty. He cheeped when he saw another magpie in the garden.
Guest 657- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 3,037
Sooty enjoying the sun earlier, we put him outside in his cage for a while.
Guest 641- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 2,335
I once saw a Magpie pin a Blackbird to the ground with his feet and rip the poor bird to bits, he probably only mentioned the TV show in passing and didn't mean to cause offence
Evolution and survival of the fittest folks, that is what we're talking about here. Don't be harsh on a succesful predator, after all, we love the "killing machine" that is so soft and fluffy and harmless, "Boom, boom"! For our younger readers that'll be a fox.
I understand completely what you`re saying Jeane. You`re only showing your compassionate side and it would have been, no doubt, some dilemma for you to have left the young one to it`s inevitable fate.
I just hope that you give him a good talking too before you release him!
thank you Roger.
