March 18, 2008: Pest
 

http://cellar.org/2008/pest.jpg
Some birds just need killin'.

what kind of eagle/hawk? and the pesky one?

I expected to see a picture of myself here.

Golden Eagle and Magpie, I believe.

Your magpies are weird looking.

Great find though Bruce, I love the look on the Eagles face, you can tell he is mighty peeved.

Aussie Magpie, just as cheeky and make great pets. They tend to give cats and dogs hell.

Yep Magpie.

They are extremely smart birds. Damn gutsy too.
I would guess that magpie has 5x the brains that Eagle does.

Their intelligence is on par with higher primates. This is due to their abstraction, memory, and creativity. They were even proven to be able to count and remember up to 4.

There was a case of one landing on a horse's butt and saying giddyap.

Crows in Japan wait with the pedestrians at lights. When the lights turn green they walk out and put nuts under the car tires. They then return to the sidewalks. The light changes the cars drive off cracking the nuts. The light changes again they go out and eat.

There is a video of a crow, another Corvid member, fashioning a tool to hook a grub out of a tube.

British magpies are the same as American ones (unlike robins and starlings from what I remember).

They make a really harsh brassy sound, as I found out when my (ex) cats brought one into the kitchen, then cowered in fear as it recovered and claimed the cooker hood as its perch.

Awesome. I love birds.

I thought this was going to be that thing where the one bird rips the other one's neck off.

I was working from home one day in October and, as I was passing the front window, I noticed a deer in the driveway. He was standing with his head down, facing a magpie. The magpie was walking back and forth, with the deer watching him. It was almost as if they were having a conservation.

I went to get my camera and just as I got back the magpie flew away, but a second one came and took its place. After another few seconds of this strange negotiation, the magpie flew over and landed on the back of the deer.

The deer stood very still and the magpie started pecking him, as if looking for bugs. Over the next few minutes, the bird worked his way from the tail of the deer up to the head. Then the deer turned his head and the magpie stuck his beak into the deer's ear.

I discussed this with hunters and deer experts, and all said they had never heard of this kind of interaction.

Here are some pictures. They were taken through the window, so they're a little fuzzy.

That deer never moved around? Oh, I see one ear moved...must have been loving the attention. Very cool.

He finally moved when the magpie tried to land on top of his ear. He didn't like that. Here's the action shot.

[EDIT:] I just noticed, it looks like the deer has a spear through his head. That's just a shovel handle that I use to keep the gate from blowing closed.

Still, it's very odd that otherwise his head doesn't move. His tail doesn't move either.

edit: laughing my a$$ off at myself: I was thinking that thing on his back leg was the end of a tufty tail, like deer have long tails. What a maroon! :blush:

But I gotta call 'shop or fake deer or something because his lips/tongue don't move. Nothing moves but that one ear. Is he real? :rolleyes:

PS I didn't think that was a spear through his head. lol

Here's the only picture I took where his other ear moved. Now you can tell that he's real, and not just my neighbor dressed up in a deer costume.

(You can also see the living room and back yard reflected in the window.)

You know what? I seriously tried to google "fake deer with moving ears" to see where you got that thing. :blush:

He looks more real in that picture. :)