Magpies v Suet Cake

As well as spreading seed on the grass for the ground feeding birds I added an Insect and Peanut suet cake to see who would be interested. Most of it was gobbled up by a group of five Magpies.



The suet cake was put there at 9 a.m. and all completely gone by midday. The Pied Wagtail continues to visit every day.

Magpies Bathing

There was a thin layer of water over a thick layer of ice in the bird bath but that didn't deter



the three regular Magpie visitors from having their daily shower. The Pied Wagtail spent several hours in the garden today.

Magpie versus Rook at the Feeders

A longish video clip today. About 4 and a half minutes. The Magpie is used to visiting my bird feeders and having them all to itself. Yesterday a Rook decided to sample the free food on offer. I was fascinated watching the Magpie patiently work out how to safely shoo the Rook away.



As with the Wood Pigeon a few days ago the main method seems to be an attack from behind.

Then There Were Two

About a week ago the camera covering the bird feeders recorded some night visits from a very unwelcome visitor. The sort with brown fur and a very long tail. Fascinating watching the ease with which a rat can climb up a vertical post. Needless to say I then started to put the feeders away each night and provide Mr Ratty with his own special food safely positioned under a shed. After a few days I could see it had taken the bait and I disposed of one ex rat. Hopefully things are back to normal now.

On the more welcome front I see there are now two Magpies visiting the feeders. They are not very tolerant of other birds trying to feed at the same time. At about 3min 15sec in you can see how one deals with a Wood Pigeon.



Most of the bird sounds seem to be coming from Starlings who are not happy at having to wait their turn.

Magpie Visitor

This Magpie visits the bird feeders from time to time.



It always has the food to itself as all the smaller birds stay away until it has flown away.

Not Only Hedgehogs

There are visits by Hedgehogs about five nights a week but others have also discovered the supply of free food.



I haven't seen the mouse for a while. Maybe the Fox found it.

King of the Birdtable

or maybe Queen





The Magpie is now a regular visitor.

Yesterday I heard a Mistle Thrush singing. The first time this year.
Hearing one and actually seeing it are two very different things.

Magpie at the Bird Table

When there is food about a Magpie will find a way to get at it.



Especially when it is a suet block filled with dried mealworms.
No sound on this video.

I Might Have Known.....

.... the first bird I spotted using the suet ball feeder would be





a Magpie.

These were taken with the Nikon Coolpix S9050 I bought in December 2012.  It's doing a grand job as the photo numbering reached 9999 and started again from 0001 a few days ago. That means it has taken over 10,000 shots. It is still using the original battery which automatically charges every time I plug the camera in the laptop to download the photos.

Not What I Expected

I spotted only one visitor to the new feeder yesterday.
I had expected it to be a House Sparrow or Blue Tit not ......



...... a Magpie.
It did its best to get its head through the bars but left empty beaked.
As far as I could tell it was the only visitor.
There were no beak marks in any of the jars of peanut butter.
Early days yet. It had only been up for a few hours.

The bird table has had lots of activity, mainly House Sparrows, Starlings and Blue Tits.
An occasional visitor is a Coal Tit.

 

As is usual at this time of year the Coal Tit will take black Sunflower seeds and hide them in the ground or in a crevice in a tree trunk. I have watched them do both in previous Winters.

Determined Magpie

Three sides of the bird table have 2 inch metal mesh.
The fourth side has two wooden bars.



The idea was to keep out the larger birds and give the smaller ones a chance to feed.

Saturday Cinema - Magpie

The Magpie and the Egg

When I made my Penny Poo check in the garden this morning I saw two Wood Pigeon eggs on the ground under the tall Leylandii then promptly forgot about them until:



I have seen a Magpie around the garden these past few mornings and today I watched as this one started one side of the garden and make its slow, cautious way across to one of the eggs.



Once the Magpie had flown away I went to see the result:



As is her habit when I do anything around the garden, once I had moved away Penny had to go and investigate to see what was so interesting:



I'm not sure whether the eggs were blown from the nest in yesterday's blustery winds or helped on their way by the Magpie. Either way I was pleased as the Wood Pigeon population around the village is increasing rapidly. Every street lamp in the village seems to have a layer of WP guano under it.

Friday at the Flicks - Magpie

On our early walkabouts several Magpies can often be heard making their very distinctive cackling sound. They usually stay up on the roof tops though one morning I did see one chasing a Sparrowhawk out of the neighbourhood. Occasionally one or two can be seen in the garden like this cheeky looking juvenile:



I always know when they are around as the noise they make is very distinctive:



There were two of them in the garden and for the first time saw what they were up to. I had regularly seen broken egg shells in various parts of the garden. Soon after the video was taken one arrived back in the tree with an egg in its beak. As it was from a Wood Pigeon nest I was quite pleased the Magpies were helping to curtail their ever increasing numbers.

Have a great weekend observing the wildlife around you.

The Early Blue Tit .....

... catches the berry flavoured suet log - until a Magpie comes along and steals it:



Soundtrack produced using the iPad app Loopesque.

Friday at the Flicks - Magpie on the Bird Table

At last I managed to snatch some pieces of video when the Magpie visited the Bird Table.
Once again the lighting is a mix of dull daylight and Infra Red:




Visit Shirls's Gardenwatch site for a beautiful close video of a tiny Wren foraging.

One for Sorrow .........

So starts the rhyme when counting Magpies. Recently I have had three visiting from time to time. A difficult subject to photograph as they are so skittish and fly away at the slightest disturbance. Also low bright Sunlight on those white feathers is difficult for the camera to reproduce:

The Early Bird Gathers the Peanuts

Two mornings running one of the earliest bird visitors has been a Magpie arriving before 6 a.m. to gather any left over peanuts which were put out the previous night for the Hedgehog:



Mrs Great Tit is spending long periods on her nest looking after the eight eggs:



As well as the pair of Stock Doves there are several others which are daily visitors to the garden. For the first time I have a pair of Robins making several visits along with a pair of Greenfinches and a pair of Dunnocks.

Friday at the Flicks - That Magpie

The first time I have used the 70D hand held for video. The weight of it, a battery pack and a heavy zoom lens took some holding. Even more so as it had to be held away from me so I could see the live view. The mirror is locked up for video.



On reflection it would have been better if I had zoomed out a bit. That would have made for less, or slower camera movement in tracking the bird. I finally got Round Tuit and updated my copy of Corel Video Studio Pro to x6 which is what I used for this video.

Have a great weekend observing the wildlife around you.

Magpie

Occasionally a lone Magpie drops in to see what is available:



If there is no scattered seed try the apple trees next door: