How do I get a magpie...

[Chilternrides]

...out of my house?

I woke up to what I thought were unusually noisy neighbours this morning, "Don't normally hear the crockery clinking together when they're washing up." Oh Well.
Wandered downstairs and turned into the living room only to be dive-bombed by a 'kin big magpie!

The sound of the "crockery" was this thing zipping around all over the place and knocking ornaments over.

Could I catch it? Did it crap everywhere? If I opened all the windows and doors would it fly out?

No, yes, no, in that order!

 

[Cheddar George]

Open the windows is the only option, we used to get a lot of starlings coming down our chimney .... should work for magpies eventually.

Don't mention air rifles !!!!

 

[Arch]

Is it still there?

I'd have thought you have two options. Leave all the doors and windows open, and eventually it will stop panicing and find its way out.

Or, try and corner it, holding up something like a sheet, to throw over it, and then take the whole bundle outside and release it. This may take a couple of people to get it cornered.

Oh, and as it's only one, don't forget to say "Good morning Mr Magpie, how are you and all your children?" to ward off the bad luck.

 

[calibanzwei]

+1 for the sheet method

 

[Mad at urage]

+1 for the most important thing being to greet it properly!

 

[Bman]

+1 for the most important thing being to greet it properly!

With an air rifle?

 

[Mad at urage]

With an air rifle?

Sounds like bad luck to me - especially for the decor!

 

[ianrauk]

Shotgun... better chance of hitting the bloody thing then with an air rifle

 

[Chilternrides]

It's gone of it's own accord - on advice, I left it in the house on it's own, with just one window open; it found the source of the cool air and made it's way out.

Not until it had splattered a pile of clean laundry and my bookshelf though...

 

[Spinney]

It's gone of it's own accord - on advice, I left it in the house on it's own, with just one window open; it found the source of the cool air and made it's way out.

Not until it had splattered a pile of clean laundry and my bookshelf though...

If there is a next time - it works faster if you can shut all the curtains apart from the one across the open window. They seem to head for the light (this is based on experience with a blackbird and a starling).

 

[Fnaar]

Play it the opening credits to Magpie telly prog from the 70s

[media]

]View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R37LYpB4fb0[/media]



and show it a picture of Susan Stranks

and then Jenny Hanley:

hold on, that might keep it in the house...

 

[Fiona N]

I haven't had a magpie in the house (thank goodness) but I woke up one night to an unusual whirring noise in the bedroom. Sat up to figure out and realised there's a bat doing high speed circles round the room. Intriguing as to how it go in as I have wooden venetian blinds which were fully down but slanted at about 45 degrees - or about half open.

I thought it might go out of the window if I opened the venetians right up but I couldn't open the windows completely and I guess its sonar was 'seeing' the glass so it just keep going round and round squeaking at high frequency. I went for a towel without switching the bathroom light on but catching a small bat in the dark - well, you can imagine But after about 5 minutes of casting the towel with no luck I realised the first bat had been joined by another This bat seemed to be older and a better flyer in that it flew circles without near misses on the walls - the first one flew towards a wall and veered off at the last moment nearly flying into the next wall so it proceeded in jerks - must have been exhausting.

Well, now I was wondering whether to just go back to bed and leave them to it on the basis they'd get out eventually, but it would be a bit cruel trying to sleep with them circling overhead. So I retreated to the bathroom and switched the light on - and blow me, if one didn't follow me in. So now we have the (I reckon, young) bat flying round in an even more limited space and nearly hitting the shower door (glass) every pass. But then it flew above the shower door and dropped into the shower. So you can imagine the poor thing's trying to do circuits inside a shower cublicle Sensibly, it decided to have a rest and hung onto the edge of the shampoo/soap rack. So I open ed the door slowly and it just hung there looking, I have to say, completely knackered. So I got my fingers round it and took it to the window and opened my hand. It was so knackered it didn't seem keen to get away. So I put it onto the window sill outside the window and stood back. I could hear it was still making a noise which seemed to allow the other (still doing circuits in the bedroom) to locate it and the second one flew straight past me, out of the window without hesitating and I realised the other had gone within seconds too.

Exciting night - and no bat shoot

 

[fenfirsttimer]

Unfortunately my cat brings the birds in and I am forever rescuing them and they do panic if chased. Fortunately I have an easily cleanable wooden floor and not many ornaments.

It is the real downside of cat ownership in my book.....

 

[Pennine-Paul]

I hope it's not left any unwanted visitors,We came back from honeymoon many years ago

to find a dead crow in the living room,must have starved to death or done itself in

whilst we were away enjoying ouselves,unfortunately we found the whole house infested with fleas

took months to get rid of the little s*&ts

 

[Bman]

Excellent Bat story Fiona

I also have a cat, but we have trained it *not* to bring his gifts inside the house. We occasionally find our front lawn strewn with feathers or the odd mouse head, but thats better than chasing a wounded and bleeding animal around your living room.

As for fleas: Dont they have to suck blood to survive? They must have been living on *something*