[POPPY]

Hi there, anyone with any tips of how to get rid of those large grey crows and magpies, they are making our lives a misery. We live in a small little cottage out in the sticks of Galway and every single morning, they start at 5 in the morning attacking all our windows and doors. they have managed in these last 6 months to bully out all the wildlife. Our area used to be always visited by birdwatchers but they've stopped coming as the only birds are this gang of rooks and magpies. My 18 month old wakes up every morning to this lot banging on her window and she's getting very distressed.My husband has been driven to distraction, he's bought poison to kill them but I've asked him to wait one more week til I can figure out something else.

Thanks for all comments,

Lorraine

[JennyS]

Hi Poppy, and welcome to IG.
The only other way would be to ask around the area and see if theres someone good with a gun....at least that way there wouldn't be any danger of poison left lying around.
Hope you get the problem sorted out ok before it drives you all to distraction.
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Irish wildflowers

[BlackBird]

How fitting that I should offer a few ideas here.
A method that I have seen to be effective is to use reflective materials to scare the magpies. So you could try hanging old cd's from the outside of the window, or perhaps stick them to the window sill to the sill. You could also try using sheets of tinfoil especially if you ducktape them down to the window sill.
Something that your 18 month old might like and your magpies will hate are the silver helium filled ballons, floting from a string attached to the sill. If you paint or stick on eyes to the ballons, plus attach silver streamers this will help deter the birds as well.
A lot of this material you will be able to find in your local pound shop or is it Euro store.

Good luck with it.

[GPI]

Hello POPPY.
Judging from what I have seen in the past, I think you have a long hard battle on your hands to ever get totally rid of your magpies completely.
I believe your young child would be your main concern so let me suggest the folllowing. From what I can gather the only birds tough enough to take on magpies, pigeons and crows etc are...

Owls

Falcons

and Kestrels

I suggest you visit a hunting and fishing shop, to see if they can source some decoys of these birds.
A quick search on the web for, as an example "Falcon decoy", also brings up numerous sellers.
Plastic decoys such as these placed on a high point near your childs window, combined with moving them every day or so may be enough to prevent distress.
You could also take member blackbirds idea with the helium balloons a bit further by painting on predator eyes similar to those of the birds above.

Let us know how you get on.
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