One of the first things we noticed when we moved to Canberra was that there were a lot of cyclists. And bizarrely, they all had one thing in common – cycle helmets with giant quivering spikes on the top.
Was this some new cycling fad? Or a political statement about something? We had no idea what it was all about, until we plucked up the courage to ask someone. It turns out they were cable ties sticking out the top of the cycle helmets – which is one popular local method of deterring swooping Magpies.
Now there are 2 things that have astonished me about Australian Magpies:
- The first is that they sing the most beautiful songs. They sound very different to UK Magpies.
- The second thing that I could not believe about Australian Magpies is that the males can apparently be quite vicious when defending a nest with young chicks in. This only happens during Spring.
For the past year I have rather smugly gone about my daily business, managing to avoid any Magpie swooping incidents. I had actually begun to believe that as I have not bothered the local Magpies, they will not bother me.
That was until this week when I’ve been swooped 3 separate times. I would go so far as to say that I feel unjustly attacked by this Magpie as I have never done anything to worry or harm them and have simply happened I guess, to pass by close enough to their nest to warrant the attack.
I was reminded of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds today as the Magpie swooped me and I could hear the clack-clack-clack of their beak.
So I have now found myself googling what to do when you are swooped by a Magpie. After yesterday’s swooping I took a slightly different route but was still swooped. So I don’t know if it’s the same bird that can sense me coming or a different bird! Perhaps we just got lucky last October and had arrived after the main swooping season.
I have discovered there is even a live Magpie attack website where you can register any Magpie incidents. There are yellow and red flags, the red flags mean that there was an injury as a result of the Magpie swooping, eeek! So, with the beak-clacking still ringing in my ears, I can now put Magpies on my list of Australian creatures to be feared.