When I drove past this decaying wall, at first I thought I might be somewhere in Italy, but I had second thoughts when I saw the "Beware Magpie Nesting Area" sign ! It's currently magpie breeding season, and you are likely to get dive-bombed by one of these birds. See here for info about Australian magpies. Here's a pic of someone being swooped.
* No, Erskineville - very near the Mexico Olympics Three Proud People mural
It happened to my husband last week. Lucky he was cycling and wearing a helmet! Strangely though, other people past the same spot later and were not attacked...
ReplyDeleteHappy to know the name of these birds we often saw in Australia.
ReplyDeleteThe interesting post! And what did I find from behind links too, thanks, Sally!
ReplyDeleteI have small birds nesting in my backyard. The other day a magpie came in the yard and the nesting birds buzzed around it, almost bombing it, until it flew away. Nice to see magpies get some of their own medicine.
ReplyDeleteJD
The poor misunderstood magpie. Despite the strength of the magpie myth, it isn't automatically savage when you're near its nest. The attacks begin ONLY when someone other than you has first threatened them. They transfer their defensive strategies onto other completely innocent humans. European posters might be familiar with a similar process in the way blackbirds (which are born without an innate aversion to cats) use their distinctive warning "clack! clack! clack!" signal to engender aggression against all cats, once the first cat is seen carrying a blackbird.
ReplyDeleteIt's even reported being caused (with blackbirds) by them merely seeing someone carrying a pair of dangling black gloves. But many Australians who haven't lived among magpies sometimes find it difficult to believe what friendly parents magpies are --- until someone in that area has threatened their young. Then it's total war.
See any parallels in Homo Sapiens, or their Nation States??
Excellent post! I cliked on the picture with the woman being wooped... Reminds me the Hitchcock movie "the birds"... We have similar birds "attacks" here. Recently we saw a bluejay flying high and swooping down over our cat. It has hilarious but our poor cat was terrorized!
ReplyDeleteyikes! in another link they look harmless .
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