Step Softy and Hopefully

Positivity with Trepidation

I am saying this very carefully, but after two days there are no signs of the magpies.

This is written so as not to offend anyone in the bird world. But….No magpies for two full days.

I planted the marigolds. The bags  are blowing and the CDs and tinfoil are glinting.

To get your head on straight as a woman, it’s interesting to hear how others (I mean men) would deal with the situation. One nice couple told me you have to kill one and leave it laying where they congregate. The others get the message and do not return. Can’t see myself in that role.

Two men on separate occasions told of how they fixed the problem with a shotgun. Not only did they kill more than one, but the offensive birds never returned.

Nnnnn…yikes.

The upside is that within a short time of their departure the smaller birds returned. I tried to post a video so you could hear the little birds singing but couldn’t make it work. Joy to my ears and the world! Keep your fingers crossed!

 I thought it was Marley and the magpies, but….

One morning about 4:30 a.m., daylight had broken and I was awake and up for some reason. There was the mother cat from two doors down, Marley, on her way home presumably coming back from a night of hunting. You have to understand Marley. She is the mangiest, most matted, yet lovely cat you could ever find. She has a huge heart and loves children. 

As she daintily moved quickly down the sidewalk, I noticed a couple of the resident magpies flying back and forth between the trees and ground. As I watched, one of them began to swoop at her non-stop until she reached her own doorstep. The other just walked around on the lawns. Marley seemed unfazed.

I thought they must be protecting a nest. That was in my front yard.

Fast forward a few days later when I was out in my backyard trying to water my plants. A while ago I realized all the little songbirds from earlier in the season had disappeared.

A couple more magpies were being very noisy in my big Maple and all of a sudden they began to swoop at my head. I was yelling and flailing my arms and they left. I looked high and low but couldn’t see a nest.

I went on the internet to find a remedy. They said to string old CD discs and wads of tin foil because they don’t like the bright reflecting light. They said they don’t like eyes so to wear a hat or helmet with sunglasses perched on the top. The light was so bright and so windy the next morning I was fighting off a migraine from the glinting light myself because of it. I wore a ball cap and sun glasses when I went outside again and it seemed to work. They didn’t return for a while, but they did return.

Their conversations are so incredibly annoying, the minute I heard them, I went outside and grabbed a broom and started yelling. They took off.

When they returned, it was supper time and they brought at least six more friends with them. Once again, I went out bare-headed to storm the guard. I banged on the eaves, on the BBQ, and anything else I could find and yelled at them to go away. Several flew off immediately, but at least three totally ignored me, sitting on a tree branch together like they owned it. I felt like I was in The Birds movie.

My sister said to try grocery bags blowing in the wind so I attached a few to the deck. I stopped and bought 24 marigolds and will transplant them tomorrow. Supposedly, magpies don’t like their smell. I’m afraid they would work better placed on the roof or up in the high branches, but I won’t be reaching those places any time soon.

I understand they are members of the Corvid family with crows and ravens and are extremely intelligent. They don’t have layers of cerebral cortex like humans but something different. They recognize faces and know if you’ve wronged them.

Oh wow, I hope I haven’t started a war…