OFF-SEASON OBS - LOCH GARTEN - September 2019-February 2020

Lovely report, Ann! I myself just returned from a trip to Salt Lake City, Utah, where I saw magpies, much to my delight. We do not have them back in upstate New York. Nor do we have the majestic ranges, the west side of which is the Wasatch Front just east of Salt Lake City.

@SCYLLA, your captures are so crystal clear they look 3D! :-*

Hi CC, Thanks. And it is great that you saw a Magpie. What sort is it that they have in the Salt Lake City area? The Magpies in the UK are fascinating birds and intelligent, of course, being corvids. Sadly, they reputedly predate small bird's nests but they certainly are entertaining. I once watched a family of 4 or 5 recently fledged juveniles playing in and around a small bird bath, alternately jumping in, splashing about and chasing each other; it was hilarious.

Speaking of Magpies and their virtues/vices - can there be a more aggressive variety than the Australian one?

Apart from harassing people (cyclists can be knocked off their bikes!), they present a danger to young raptors when they buzz them and their parents persistently over weeks!  This is the elder of two White-bellied Sea-eaglets who were forced to fledge before they were quite ready - the Magpie was here joined by a similar-looking bird, a Currawong, so the eaglet stood no chance.

The first eaglet to fledge was the younger, probably male, and it had to survive the frightening interest of a fox while it was grounded - but both eaglets have since been seen thriving.  I'm not quite up-to-date tho.

NEW LINK deleted, as it soon stopped working.

Not working now MC!!

Try this link if any problems

HERE

Fergus has posted a piece about migration, see link below. Ian

community.rspb.org.uk/.../migration-how-to

Ann, I think those magpies are black-billed magpies: www.allaboutbirds.org/.../BLACK-BILLED_MAGPIE

CC, Yes, it looks like you are right. The Black-billed Magpie is also the one we saw in Anchorage in southern Alaska. I hadn't realised that there seem to be only two Magpies in North America and looking at the maps on the allaboutbirds site, the other, the Yellow-billed Magpie, is only in California, whereas the Black-billed is in much of the Rockies in the USA (but not in the far southern Rockies) and in Canada.