[philcaegrug]

Two years ago the magpies had our swallow chicks from in the stables.  The swallows are now back and nesting.  Do I let nature take its' course or do I get rid of the magpies?

[Porterlauren]

Si vis pacem, para bellum

If you want peace for the swallows, make war on the magpies.

Swallows have a fair bit stacked against them, they can always do with our help, whereas the corvids will always prevail, no matter what we throw at them.

. . . and you only noticed the swallow chicks that they got, there will be countless more nests that they robbed, that you never saw.

[Steph Hen]

I'd get rid of the magpies.

[Penninehillbilly]

Someone walked past our house today, mentioned she was worried about a magpie down the lane, it was just sat there, 'I'll go and have a look at it' says I. One magpie less.
A friend told me how one took a house sparrow chick from its nest, luckily it dropped it and she managed to put it where the parents could feed it.
 
Shame, they are so lovely to see, but we let a gamekeeper trap them to help the smaller birds survive.
 

[Bramblecot]

Interesting sight in our garden the other day (sad though). 
A young crow was hopping around on the lawn, obviously with an injured wing.  A magpie started attacking it, pulling at it's tail feathers.  5 other crows flew in and made a circle around the injured one.  They stayed for about 5 minutes and kept the magpie at bay.  Then, as one, they flew away leaving the youngster to it's fate.  It was as if they knew it would not make it.
OH went out and gave it a quick end.

[Steph Hen]

Interesting sight in our garden the other day (sad though). 
A young crow was hopping around on the lawn, obviously with an injured wing.  A magpie started attacking it, pulling at it's tail feathers.  5 other crows flew in and made a circle around the injured one.  They stayed for about 5 minutes and kept the magpie at bay.  Then, as one, they flew away leaving the youngster to it's fate.  It was as if they knew it would not make it.
OH went out and gave it a quick end.

That is interesting. Corvids are so clever, it's a shame they're pests as I do like watching them figure things out.

[Greenerlife]

Do magpies eat bees?  I could swear I saw one doing just that my apiary a couple of days ago.  Never seen it before, but if that's the case I am definitely going to get rid of it!

[Steph Hen]

Do magpies eat bees?  I could swear I saw one doing just that my apiary a couple of days ago.

Never heard of it, but that doesn't mean they don't! Get a camera recorder set up 

[sss]

Just been out to take a pic of our swallows. I think there may be a fourth in there but did not want to disturb them for any length of time

[Bramblecot]

Lovely .  Ours flew the nest on Friday and now I'm going to clear up all the mess .  How can little birds make so much poo

[Marches Farmer]

Magpies are fearsome predators of nestlings and eggs.  We used to have mistle thrushes nesting in the hedge trees every year but the magpies killed the nestlings every time.Unfortunately thrushes tend to build their nests in the forks of branches and they just aren't well camouflaged.

[philcaegrug]

Update on the swallows.  They're now on their 2nd brood  . 3in the first and 4 in the nest at the moment and no troubles so far 

[Bramblecot]

That's lovely phil .  We had 3 in the first and 4 in the second too . 
They are flying around now and just coming back at night.  There were 10 on the telephone wires this afternoon.  I love watching them but it always makes me think that autumn is on the way and they'll be gone soon

[Fleecewife]

We have lots of swallows again this year, but they are being unusually quiet.  Most years we can't hear the songbirds for the swallow chatter.   The nests here have been suffering from woodpecker attacks - they don't seem to actually eat the nestlings, they just rip the nests apart and drop the babies over the edge 

They will probably all be gone in a month, back to Africa and all those yummy flies.

[philcaegrug]

We had about 15 flying around yesterday so it looks like autumn is on the way.