Animal Rescue

[den]

Picked up two animals today

The first was a long-necked tortoise. She was found walking through the middle of town on her search for a mate. I took her straight down to the river and let her go. Some people with a boat on the shore gave me a round of applause so I took a bow. That's when I noticed their "Inland Fisheries" badges and a mass of dead European Carp, none of which were smaller than 18" long. We got to chatting and they told me they were "electrofishing" to get rid of the carp. Their boat had a little generator on board, and they dangled a cable in the water. The other terminal was connected to a metal mesh net. The carp was caught by dipping the net in the water and scooping up the stunned fish.

The second is a young magpie. He'd been caught by some little bastards and made to fly by hurling him into the air. The brats did this for so long that 3 of he 8 claws have been broken right off at the toes. He's in my cage now, sitting on a soft cloth because his feet are too sore to pearch with. Poor little thing. The bloke who found the bird gave one of the kids a good smack on the side of the head and told them to piss off home. I approve.

Comments

[walkertxkitty.livejournal.com]

It's entirely possible. Memory is faulty, but I seem to recall a conversation with Denny about hating the magpies here because of their behavior and he explained to me that the Australian ones were different. Why I thought they were less aggressive, I don't know.

The ones here will persecute you simply because they don't like the color of your clothing, that you're riding a bike or that...well...you exist.

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

Magpie chicks leave the nest before can fly, so the parents look after them on the ground until they learn to fly. During this period they are insanely aggressive but only for about 2 weeks a year. The rest of the time they mooch around looking for freebies.

And they aren't ganstas at all. Silly 'Roo.

[lostwanderfound.livejournal.com]

The ones here will persecute you simply because they don't like the color of your clothing

I read something recently about magpies being ridiculously intelligent (for a bird) and also having very good memories. One effect of this is that if a magpie's nest was threatened by, say, someone wearing a red hat, then that magpie will then forever after attack people wearing red hats (but not necessarily other colours of hat).

They really don't like the colour of your clothing.

(Speaking here as someone who came within an inch of losing an eyeball to a magpie strike when I was a kid, btw)

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

they REALLY don't like the Postie's helmet.