Road kill.

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Road kill.

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Tavascarow

Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Posts: 8407
Location: South Cornwall

Posted: Thu Apr 22, 10 6:00 pm Post subject: Road kill.

A friend of mine in Australia witnessed an amazing thing yesterday whilst out for a walk.
She spotted an Aus magpie struggling to drag a still living black snake (venomous) from the road to the bush, nothing unusual about that but she heard a car coming, & the magpie instead of flying away or trying harder to remove its prey reversed & took the snake to the middle of the road.
The car did the deed & the magpie returned to pick up the now dead snake?
'Aint nature wonderful, & never underestimate the brain power of a bird.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46211
Location: yes

Posted: Thu Apr 22, 10 6:07 pm Post subject:
ace

GENT

Joined: 03 Jun 2008
Posts: 387
Location: Student diggs- coventry.

Posted: Fri Apr 23, 10 11:19 am Post subject:
wow! Those birds are plotting against us i tell you! They are planning something!!

nettie

Joined: 02 Dec 2004
Posts: 5888
Location: Suffolk

Posted: Fri Apr 23, 10 11:44 am Post subject:
Wonder if they're any good with rabbits? Our cats are useless!

T.G

Joined: 13 Sep 2009
Posts: 7280
Location: Somewhere you're not

Posted: Fri Apr 23, 10 12:05 pm Post subject:
Magpies are smart little cookies

pricey

Joined: 28 Feb 2005
Posts: 6444

Posted: Fri Apr 23, 10 12:17 pm Post subject:
Great story, love it.

matt_hooks

Joined: 01 Aug 2010
Posts: 312
Location: Lambourn(ish) Berkshire

Posted: Mon Aug 02, 10 4:57 pm Post subject:
haha that's brilliant! Are Aus magpies the same as our ones? I've seen a magpie empty a roadside rubbish bin by "walking" the bag up to the top using feet and beak, but the car trick is a neat one!

Dave NE

Joined: 08 Sep 2010
Posts: 18

Posted: Thu Sep 09, 10 6:58 am Post subject:
A few years ago we watched a Magpie kill a baby rabbit, it grabbed it in its beak and flew into the air about 6-8 feet and dropped it on the road, it took a while for the rabbit to die and was not nice to watch but, thats nature in the raw, Dave NE

Cobnut

Joined: 29 Aug 2008
Posts: 475
Location: North Herefordshire

Posted: Thu Sep 09, 10 7:23 am Post subject:
Corvids are very bright birds. Here�s a clip of them working out how to crack nuts... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1P8Nwl7FAJk

Bodger

Joined: 23 May 2006
Posts: 13524

Posted: Thu Sep 09, 10 8:38 am Post subject:
Survival of the fittest. All the thick magpies are flat.

Green Man

Joined: 23 Jul 2006
Posts: 5272
Location: Rural Scotland.

Posted: Thu Sep 09, 10 8:44 am Post subject:

Dave NE wrote:

A few years ago we watched a Magpie kill a baby rabbit, it grabbed it in its beak and flew into the air about 6-8 feet and dropped it on the road, it took a while for the rabbit to die and was not nice to watch but, thats nature in the raw, Dave NE

Does that make a Magpie a 'Bird Of Prey'. I told somebody once I saw two crows kill a healthy Curlew in an stubble field and eat it, but they refused to believe me as "Crows don't kill, just scavange".

matt_hooks

Joined: 01 Aug 2010
Posts: 312
Location: Lambourn(ish) Berkshire

Posted: Wed Sep 15, 10 8:21 pm Post subject:

[quote="Green Man"]

Dave NE wrote:

"Crows don't kill, just scavange".

And I can confirm that's a load of old tosh! Corvids are as much birds of prey as eagles! On Rum the white tailed eagles preferred to follow the stalker and wait for them to produce the inevitable free meal (nice nutritious deer gralloche) than to actually hunt live prey, but they are more than capable of taking a small deer if times are hard. If there is "free" food available by scavenging, it's not a sensible survival strategy to work hard to catch/kill your own, the energy balance favours scavenging whenever possible, but if it's not then a crow will think nothing of raiding a nest, or having away a kit or a live mouse or similar!

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