Magpies




Most of the points that apply to crows apply here also (they are both members of the corvid family), but magpies can be "called"- take a film canister, and half fill it with pellets. Tape the lid down, and when shaken, it will produce a "rattchakk" type of noise which with practice can be made very magpie-like. Try and get their call pattern- 6 short trills, interspersed with single longer trills.




Magpies if anything are more tempted by a rabbit decoy than crows, and they can also lured into range with a decoy owl. Place this on a fencepost or other area where owls are likely to be found, slip into your hide and wait. Magpies, Jays and various other birds will mob the "intruder" and try to drive it off. A flapping owl will work even better. However, be wary- other birds are keen to chase the owl away, and these (e.g. blakbirds) may not be legal airgun quarry. Make sure you know what you are shooting!





steve

Magpies are a very aware bird, for a good 3-5 years at least i watched my dad try and shoot 'em ,he might have hit one, something we always found was they were fine until any part of the rifle was visible, you could open a window/door no probs but as soon as you start to take aim they disappear ,hope it helps someone (i would also appreciate any answers )

I suppose you could always have adopted the Army's sniping technique of shooting from inside the room, as opposed to giving your position away by having the rifle protruding from the window ?. I know it would cut down your angles, but at least the marauding little tinkers wouldn't be aware anything was wrong till it was too late.

cheers ill try it

Haha,I tried this with my neighbour 2 doors down. Woodies kept coming down and feeding on the chicken feed we would leave out for them. We could hang out the window and they wouldn't budge but as soon as the barrel was on the edge of the frame they buggered off! We set up a platform on the kids top bunk and waited,5 huge pidge came in to feed and he took 1st shot....BANG! WTF....5 pidge flew off and after I recovered from the shock I saw a bloody great hole in the UPVC window frame! When we finished pissing ourselves laughing we realised the angle was that acute he hadn't allowed for the risers on the scope and the short distance he was from the window. £70 to the window doctor later we now shoot from the french doors with more of a view.

There's just got to be a moral to this story Mark!

Mark : thats bad luck m8, hope u get them pidgeons soon tho

tough little sods to decoy. we had a problem with them mobbing the song birds so got a larsen trap and a live bird. feed him water him and he soon gets in the others to the trap if you cant get to shoot them.

had 13 in 5 days last summer. but there still seams to be a rake of them about. they really need a big call imo from everyone in the country

I hate them with a passion, there a couple that always sit near my bedroom window and squark away grrrrrrrrrrrr

just cant get them to stop still anywhere down the garden to take a safe shot they very very cunning

I used to bait them in with a dead rabbit, on it's back, with it's belly slit open. Fresh road kill is good for this, but make sure it's fresh and be careful when handling it. I used to make a hide on the junction of a few hedges and place the rabbit under a tree that was there. The rabbit was placed on the opposite side of the branch they used to sit on so they turned their back on me

The hide needs to eliminate any light from behind that would give your movement away. My younger Bro would sit in it and move about with me looking at him. If I can see him then they certainly will. First light in the Winter was a great time for this and your heart starts to beat faster as you hear them coming. They chatter away with all sorts of noises like they are having a conversation about the nice food they have found. I always tried to hit the biggest birds first which caused the max confusion with the others.

It was hard with just the Fenman back then, but I still managed 3 maggies and 3 crows on one occasion. They usually need to be picked up after to avoid putting off others. They are not like rabbits and squirrels who don't care about corpses lying around.