[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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[anchoress]

One of our cats, black and white as the magpies, used to climb the tallest tree to their nest and evict them. The first time she did this I thought it was a magpie.

That was in a different house; we foun then that they hate loud noises. Used to stand near the trees banging pan lids together and they left the land then.

I imagine one of those football rattles would work very well. At nesting time they hate the disturbance.

Also we trained our dog to :"see them off".

[walltoall]

Welcome in Anchoress,
You are right on the ball with your solution to Poppy's dilemma. The banging and crashing method is ideal for a country cottage where you have no close neighbours and it has little effect on the 'dickie birds' you would like to attract. I absolutely loved your "tale of two cats"; I knew a cat once that took severe umbrage to magpies and is it a coincidence that she was also black and white? Training a terrier is also a brilliant country way of using resources to hand. The CDs and helium balloons have a downside. They frighten ALL birds as indeed do the plastic owls, eagles and hawks. If magpies are attacking windows in the morning it's likely to be East-facing ones. The stupid birds are trying to frighten off the 'opposition' and it is always young birds that are at this stupidity and generally only during late Summer. They are too thick to know it's their own reflection. You could put a plastic owl inside the offending window. When they land to sort out the enemy they WILL get a surprise. I sorted such a magpie many years ago by setting empty mouse traps on a certain window and scored a direct hit the first day. Last I ever saw of that magpie was flying off with a mouse trap on his leg.

The best way to get magpies full-time is to get their nests. Magpies set up permanently. They re-do existing nests in the Spring and two barrels of shot into a nest in April from close range can take out a whole nest and, if you are lucky, what is in it. Spend the winter mapping all the magpie nests within half a mile of your house so you know where to find them when the leaves come on. Also observe the horrors in early Spring while they are collecting nest material. It's always twigs and they particularly like old dead ash twigs collected from under the trees after the Winter winds. Get to know your ash trees. Don't confuse the nests of rooks and if you live near a rookery just get used to it. They are the most gregarious and raucous of birds.
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[anchoress]

Smiling here. It just made sense to do that. I used to stand under the trees where the nests were with my pan lids and every time they tried to land.... That cottage had been empty for years so they were well established.

There seems to be a population explosion of magpies in Ireland? They have been heard here, where the drive is lined with tall, ancient conifers, so we will sort them out also:)

The dog has already seen them off once; she is a Jack Russell/Basset cross and they are formidable hunters.

Still have the same cats, and they have already "seen off" the local ferals and the mice. And they have discovered the roof too....

[quote="walltoall"]Welcome in Anchoress,
You are right on the ball with your solution to Poppy's dilemma. The banging and crashing method is ideal for a country cottage where you have no close neighbours and it has little effect on the 'dickie birds' you would like to attract. I absolutely loved your "tale of two cats"; I knew a cat once that took severe umbrage to magpies and is it a coincidence that she was also black and white? Training a terrier is also a brilliant country way of using resources to hand. The CDs and helium balloons have a downside. They frighten ALL birds as indeed do the plastic owls, eagles and hawks. If magpies are attacking windows in the morning it's likely to be East-facing ones. The stupid birds are trying to frighten off the 'opposition' and it is always young birds that are at this stupidity and generally only during late Summer. They are too thick to know it's their own reflection. You could put a plastic owl inside the offending window. When they land to sort out the enemy they WILL get a surprise. I sorted such a magpie many years ago by setting empty mouse traps on a certain window and scored a direct hit the first day. Last I ever saw of that magpie was flying off with a mouse trap on his leg.

The best way to get magpies full-time is to get their nests. Magpies set up permanently. They re-do existing nests in the Spring and two barrels of shot into a nest in April from close range can take out a whole nest and, if you are lucky, what is in it. Spend the winter mapping all the magpie nests within half a mile of your house so you know where to find them when the leaves come on. Also observe the horrors in early Spring while they are collecting nest material. It's always twigs and they particularly like old dead ash twigs collected from under the trees after the Winter winds. Get to know your ash trees. Don't confuse the nests of rooks and if you live near a rookery just get used to it. They are the most gregarious and raucous of birds.[/quote]