dealing with magpies

Mike Elliott wrote:

Well I'll be hornswoggled. But a cyclist with a helmet -- more
alarming than dangerous,* or no?

* Of course a sudden rat-a-tat on my helmet might cause me to
perform random steering and braking actions and cause injury,
I reckon!

Absolutely right. But it's usually the repeated sound of a beak
snapping shut and/or an impact onto the helmet.

John

On Wed, 09 Apr 2008 11:40:15 -0700, Mike Elliott
wrote:


ross_w wrote:

This is pretty much a question for Australian readers, unless there
are other countries with birds that get aggressive during nesting
season.

My problem is that my route to work takes me past a magpie nesting
tree. Last September these magpies attacked me every time I went past
this tree, and I have the dents in my helmet to show for it. they tend
to fly up and attack from behind your head with their beaks.


Gracious me -- I've never been attacked by birds before, walking or
riding (I live in SoCal). I imagine it could be quite alarming if
unexpected! Is that the main issue, the surprise and pest factor? No
actual damage done to one's body?

Dear Mike,

Bird attacks on people are less common in the US, but they do occur in
certain poorly run ballparks:
http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseba...,5191122.story

Red-tail, Red Sox, victim named A. Rodriguez, hard not to see an
anti-Yankee conspiracy.

Non-humans suffer much more often.

Red-tail red racer:
http://i18.tinypic.com/66jacmp.jpg

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

I'll call Mrs. Daniels see if she knows anything about this. &*&&^%!!!
the gatorade bottle POPPED *&&&%%rCC

On Apr 10, 6:20 am, wrote:
On Wed, 09 Apr 2008 11:40:15 -0700, Mike Elliott



wrote:

ross_w wrote:

This is pretty much a question for Australian readers, unless there
are other countries with birds that get aggressive during nesting
season.

My problem is that my route to work takes me past a magpie nesting
tree. Last September these magpies attacked me every time I went past
this tree, and I have the dents in my helmet to show for it. they tend
to fly up and attack from behind your head with their beaks.

Gracious me -- I've never been attacked by birds before, walking or
riding (I live in SoCal). I imagine it could be quite alarming if
unexpected! Is that the main issue, the surprise and pest factor? No
actual damage done to one's body?

Dear Mike,

Bird attacks on people are less common in the US, but they do occur in
certain poorly run ballparks:
http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseba...,5191122.story

Red-tail, Red Sox, victim named A. Rodriguez, hard not to see an
anti-Yankee conspiracy.

Non-humans suffer much more often.

Red-tail red racer:
http://i18.tinypic.com/66jacmp.jpg

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

Interesting that such an attack is newsworthy.

Here they don't rate a mention individually, although TV news and
papers often run general stories about the issue in the spring. They
respond to press releases from the National Parks & Wildlife Service
to remind people, particularly children, to be careful where magpies
might be nesting.

On Apr 10, 6:28 am, Mike Elliott wrote:
On 4/9/2008 1:16 PM John Henderson wrote:

Mike Elliott wrote:

Well I'll be hornswoggled. But a cyclist with a helmet -- more
alarming than dangerous,* or no?

* Of course a sudden rat-a-tat on my helmet might cause me to
perform random steering and braking actions and cause injury,
I reckon!

Absolutely right. But it's usually the repeated sound of a beak
snapping shut and/or an impact onto the helmet.

Well then -- I'd drive a bunch of 12-penny through the helmet from the
inside and make it all spiky outside. One could add a black helmet, some
leather, and studs to complete the look.

Like the suggestion to use wireties, but with attitude.

--
Mike RJS

....except that wire ties won't penetrate the skull on impact with a
hard surface. (your skull, not the magpie's)

the wave breaks
on distant
shores

datakoll aka gene daniels wrote:
the wave breaks
on distant
shores

TSUNAMI!!!

--
Tom Sherman - Holstein-Friesland Bovinia
The weather is here, wish you were beautiful

ross_w wrote:
On Apr 10, 6:20 am, wrote:
[...]
Bird attacks on people are less common in the US, but they do occur in
certain poorly run ballparks:
http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseba...,5191122.story

Red-tail, Red Sox, victim named A. Rodriguez, hard not to see an
anti-Yankee conspiracy.
[...]

Interesting that such an attack is newsworthy.

You have to have some knowledge of Major League Baseball to understand.
If the name of the hawk attack victim was not almost exactly the same
(one extra letter) as that of arguably the best player on the Red Sox's
most hated rival (New York Yankees), it would not have been nearly so
newsworthy.

--
Tom Sherman - Holstein-Friesland Bovinia
The weather is here, wish you were beautiful

In article ,
wrote:

Your fierce Australian magpies have their own warning web-page, with
that Google map marking the most dangerous places!

Cheers,

Carl Fogel


Carl,

Such a map would be covered with virtual pins. Every nesting magpie pair
is a potential attacker. They usually nest high in a tall tree. The
first idea you have that there is one around is the snap of its beak as
it tries to bite your neck or ear or helmet. That is the first of up to
half a dozen swoops before you have been dispatched from its domain.

Strangely, there is a family of magpies that live close by to me in the
suburbs of Sydney who have formed an urban 'gang'. They live on one
corner and a gang of currawongs (similar size and also black & white but
totally different call) lives on the opposite corner. Both gangs engage
in a singing slanging match at dusk each evening and take out their
aggression on each other. I have never seen any of these magpies act
aggressively to humans.

cheers,
Darryl

In article ,
John Henderson wrote:

Mike Elliott wrote:

Gracious me -- I've never been attacked by birds before,
walking or riding (I live in SoCal). I imagine it could be
quite alarming if unexpected! Is that the main issue, the
surprise and pest factor? No actual damage done to one's body?

While it's very unusual, and mostly limited to the very young or
very old, people have suffered significant damage to eyes in
attacks by Australian magpies. They approach silently from
behind, and it's reasonably common for them to draw blood from
scalp or ears unless fended off.

Only certain magpies attack humans (maybe 10% to pluck a figure
out of thin air) during nesting season, and cyclists seem more
likely to be attacked than pedestrians.

I believe I've seen magpie parents instructing near-fully-grown
young which targets to attack. On the other hand, magpies
which are fed by people also tend to "introduce" their young to
these human friends in a very close and trusting manner.

Extortion.

--
Michael Press