Magpie Attacks

wcngu1 said:

oh [censored]... I completely forgot about magpies... I"m starting road biking in about 10 days which is when I pick up my bike.... are they protected? can't I bring a baseball bat? 🙁 I just bought a stradvarius II which is yellow haha if they damage it I swear I will wait for it to come again and cripple it 😠

psss... what are the charges for killing a magpie? :o

They are protected, so if the right person sees you, then you will be in trouble.

You could try the cable tie trick, some people seem to think it works, but I reckon you need the longest ones you can find.

matagi said:

They are protected, so if the right person sees you, then you will be in trouble.

You could try the cable tie trick, some people seem to think it works, but I reckon you need the longest ones you can find.

Whats a cable tie? Lol I was wondering what it actually was 😕 How about capsicum spray when it comes back for seconds hehe Or paint a picture of a cat on your helmet!!

wcngu1 said:

Whats a cable tie? Lol I was wondering what it actually was 😕 How about capsicum spray when it comes back for seconds hehe Or paint a picture of a cat on your helmet!!

This is a cable tie you can get them at places like [censored] Smith, in assorted colours and lengths.

matagi said:

This is a cable tie you can get them at places like [censored] Smith, in assorted colours and lengths.

lol ok. Thanks, interesting 😄 When is magpie season? spring? Now I wish I had bought a black or red stradvarius instead of the yellow one.... damn🙁

wcngu1 said:

lol ok. Thanks, interesting 😄 When is magpie season? spring? Now I wish I had bought a black or red stradvarius instead of the yellow one.... damn🙁

Magpie season has already started - it is a little early this year, probably because the winter has been relatively mild. It will continue until about October/November.

One time I was swooped by a big bugger....I got mad, so what I did was:
- bent my head down near the handlebar stem, in aero time-trial position
- kept pedalling, while looking over my shoulder
- watched him zoom in for a second go
- perfectly timed sudden and forceful raising of the head
took him by surprise, had no time to pull out of his dive
he slammed into the helmet, i remember seeing his wingtips wrap around my periphal vision and also the thud of the impact
- b@stard squawked several times, and he flew off into a nearby tree.
HA
GOTCHA
the things to remember are
- they never hit only once, always (in my experience) come back again and again
- helmet should minimise unjury
- don't be distracted from your path at all, stay focussed

Aussie Steve said:

One time I was swooped by a big bugger....I got mad, so what I did was:
- bent my head down near the handlebar stem, in aero time-trial position
- kept pedalling, while looking over my shoulder
- watched him zoom in for a second go
- perfectly timed sudden and forceful raising of the head
took him by surprise, had no time to pull out of his dive
he slammed into the helmet, i remember seeing his wingtips wrap around my periphal vision and also the thud of the impact
- b@stard squawked several times, and he flew off into a nearby tree.
HA
GOTCHA
the things to remember are
- they never hit only once, always (in my experience) come back again and again
- helmet should minimise unjury
- don't be distracted from your path at all, stay focussed

LOL! I'd love to do that but I have a Stradvarius II and I really don't want to damage it to take down a magpie lol *runs off and digs up the old STACKHAT*

My tale may sound like a bit of a tall story, just like some stuff we read here such as "...I was going downhill in the Dandenongs and clocked 89 kmh..."
but this actually happened exactly as I recounted it😄
It's unusual that I hit him with the helmet so well, because ppl who know me, can confirm that normally I am unco-ordinated and unorganized :p 😉
It was the anger and adrenaline....that made me focus and concentrate as in "OK, [censored]....you want some of this, come get it..." it was on a straight road, no cars...

One of the many reasons cyclists should always wear their brain bucket.

This occured late last year...
I was riding with my brother and we had just emerged from some sweat singletrack into a clearing and a football oval sorrounded by some pine trees. Now, down here in Australia, September is Magpie mating season and they get extremly aggressive and swoop people to protect their nests. This was the case here. One bird came barreling out of no where and planted its beak into the back of my helmet. (May i mention that my brother thought this was [censored] funny...untill he was swooped himself)
So there i am with this mass of black and white feathers clawing at the back of my neck and ears...so what do i do? I ride faster!
The bird freed itself but with a brain no bigger then the bearings in my headset, it came for another attack..colliding with the side of my face and knocking me off my ride...at about 30km/h. And if that wasnt enough, im laying on the ground in a twisted heap and the dam thing starts havin' a go again!
It eventually knowticed my brother which gave me enough time to bail. It freakin' hurt at the time (grazed everylimb, cut ear and neck and sprained wrist) and what was worse was i had a 8km walk home.

What a day eh?! ....sigh... Its funny to also mention that a magpie made its nest on the roof of one McDonalds so people walking past the front get an ear full...mind you, they are not nearly as aggressive as the lot I encountered.

AngoXC said:

Its funny to also mention that a magpie made its nest on the roof of one McDonalds so people walking past the front get an ear full...mind you, they are not nearly as aggressive as the lot I encountered.

Perhaps it was a health conscious magpie and was trying to save people from the horrors of fast food. Maybe we should encourage more magpies to nest at McDonald's. 😄

AngoXC said:

This occured late last year...
I was riding with my brother and we had just emerged from some sweat singletrack into a clearing and a football oval sorrounded by some pine trees. Now, down here in Australia, September is Magpie mating season and they get extremly aggressive and swoop people to protect their nests. This was the case here. One bird came barreling out of no where and planted its beak into the back of my helmet. (May i mention that my brother thought this was [censored] funny...untill he was swooped himself)
So there i am with this mass of black and white feathers clawing at the back of my neck and ears...so what do i do? I ride faster!
The bird freed itself but with a brain no bigger then the bearings in my headset, it came for another attack..colliding with the side of my face and knocking me off my ride...at about 30km/h. And if that wasnt enough, im laying on the ground in a twisted heap and the dam thing starts havin' a go again!
It eventually knowticed my brother which gave me enough time to bail. It freakin' hurt at the time (grazed everylimb, cut ear and neck and sprained wrist) and what was worse was i had a 8km walk home.

What a day eh?! ....sigh... Its funny to also mention that a magpie made its nest on the roof of one McDonalds so people walking past the front get an ear full...mind you, they are not nearly as aggressive as the lot I encountered.

You know what? if that happened to me I"d probably punch it or whack it with my bag. To hell with them lol I wouldn't care if I got caught cause that in a way is self defence. I wouldn't kill it but I"d give it a good whack for sure 😄

matagi said:

Perhaps it was a health conscious magpie and was trying to save people from the horrors of fast food. Maybe we should encourage more magpies to nest at McDonald's. 😄

haha, good one man! How funny is it that Disney has pulled out their partnership with Maccas? Its all to do with combating childhood obesity and what not. McDonalds is going to have to look elsewhere for ideas on its Happy Meals!

AngoXC said:

haha, good one man! How funny is it that Disney has pulled out their partnership with Maccas? Its all to do with combating childhood obesity and what not. McDonalds is going to have to look elsewhere for ideas on its Happy Meals!

"...in breaking news, it has been revealed that the Magpie at MacDonalds was none other than Bryan Strauchan- "Strauchnie" who is famous for his appearances on "Before the Game" on Ch 10. Malthouse offered the comment that "don't you bloody journos have something better to do...in between mouthfuls of an Unhappy Meal

Yeah i have to agree, bird swoops (tho not magpies for me but butcher birds) has been a real problems. I have been hit so hard on occasion that the outer plastic shell on my old helmets was cracked. This happened on a few occasions and the helmet had to be discarded because its integrity was to greatly compromised.😠

jur said:

I have had it with the buggers, I am mounting something on my helmet, some fake eyes. Today the one bugger actually penetrated the helmet's shell.

G'day mate, I've just finished glueing fake eyes, from toys, the sort that the eye ball moves, onto my helmet as I have been attacked twice in two days, different parts of Broken Hill. I have also drawn a visious looking mouth. On both times my helmet was damaged badly, dinted and had a peice bitten out of it. The worst was today when a large hunk was taken out of helmet just above ear. I will be getting a new helmet when this is all over for the year. Not cheap,$100. The tinsel out the back seeems to work on some birds. Best of luck.
Terry Prowse
[email hidden]

Maggies are a protected species in Oz, as Matagi pointed out.

They will generally dive-bomb three times to warn you off their territory. Most will hover about 10m above you and then dive, but be warned some aggressive buggers glide in from the side. Nasty.

They don't target eyes when they dive bomb, but may accidentally hit an eyeball if the victim is trying to look up/back to find out where the bird is. There's a clue there for the clueless: try to use their shadow to work out where they are.

Maggies clack their beaks as they get near the target (ie. your head) to emphasise their point: sometimes the clumsy ones will make contact with an ear. Blood will flow. Life will carry on.

A simple and usually effective deterrent is simply to raise fist to let them know that you know that they are there. No need to wave it about like a loon, that only puts you off balance. Of course they will normally have had at least one go at you before you realise the need to do this. 🙂

And as you've seen from some of the posts here there are plenty of very aggressive magpies out there (the kind that resemble a winged Terminator). Best off just avoiding them altogether.

I must say I have had a fairly good run this year so far from swooping birds, touch wood. On the way to work I know where they are so i avoid them but yesterday I did a 200k ride down to Flinders/Rosebud and only got swooped twice, once near Rosebud and another near Frankston.

The other day I saw a maggpie swooping a postie as he was riding up Blackburn Road on the motorbike, I was at the Waverly road lights. The postie was doing about 50ks and hour and the bird had three swoops at him over 300-400 metres, very determined, I don't think the postie knew he was there because the engine noise and helmet were blocking out the swooping sounds.

Magpies are nasty creatures, thankfully I havent been hit hard enough to start bleeding. I ride nearly every day and I get swooped at least twice, one magpie is actually at the end of my st and he swoops me when I turn into my st and continues to swoop me until I get off my bike in the driveway.

Yesterday when I was riding in Kilsyth (I had just turned left into Stradbroke rd from Sheffield rd) I was attacked by one about 4 times, he started from the back of my helmet and it felt as though he was slowly moving around to the left side, my helmet has breathing holes in the back and he managed to get his beak in the hole and hit my head. I tried putting my fist up in the air to stop it but had no luck.

Has anyone determined the best way to minimise the swooping yet?

My helmet is red with white and black and I wear red lycra and im near positive that I get swooped more than anyone else I speak to and ride with.

Off Topic: That wouldnt happen to be Trent Harrison...the go-kart man would it?