Native birds

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33189, 31 March 1973, Page 14

Native birds

s s Sir, —A pair of magpies, J and their descendants, have lived and nested in our large .(suburban garden for well over e, twenty years. At nesting time 'I have seen them chasing off s, blackbirds; I have also seen (blackbirds chasing them well! and truly. The rest of the: year our bird population lives harmoniously. As I write] this, listening to the magpies ■ singing, two pairs of fantails, ’ which also nest yearly in our ‘ trees, are flitting about. From '(now on there will be wax- ; eyes galore, a few grey ' warblers and hedge sparrows, '(not to mention the usual ‘numbers of starlings, | thrush , sparrows etc. I have i never seen magpies take fledglings, but I am not so sentimental as to believe they never do. From my observar tions I would say they would 'do so only when there is a! (tremendous demand on them !■ (for food for their young and) their normal diet of grubs i etc. from paddocks, parks and lawns is unavailable or proves inadequate. — Yours, etc., G.A. ( March 30, 1973. ( Sir, —Those correspondents i ’ who affirm that magpies take' , young sparrows from their nests are astray. The , entrance to a sparrow’s nest ! is too small for a magpie to , reach the young. Bellbirds j are still plentiful in native ’ bush according to informa- . tion given on a camera club ■ visit this month to Lottery ' Bush. As for magpies attack- ’ ing people it is usually when people have taken their ' young. We reared three [ daughters at Culverden and they were never attacked by ’ magpies. Cats, weasles, stoats and rats —not mag- ’ pies—are the destroyers of birds. —Yours, etc., 5 E. ROBERTS. •| March 30, 1973. > [This correspondence is now closed. — Editor, “The Press.”]