ON THE WING
It’s that time of the year when magpies (pictured) start to show their belligerent and rowdy side — and I’m not talking about Collingwood supporters.
The comparison might seem a little unfair coming from a St Kilda devotee, but the Collingwood joke always appears to emerge when I mention magpies and their apparent aggressiveness during AFL finals time at the start of spring. And so it was in the last week of August when I toured an infamous magpie “war-zone” — Clarence St on the Eastern Shore.
My attention was first drawn to the magpies on the highway near Clarence High School about 10 years ago. Going over to Howrah at the time, I found myself under attack. Each year the same thing has happened, and I’ve never been able to establish if it is just one or several male magpies taking exception to cyclists and walkers invading their space along the leafy margins of the boulevard.
The staff at Ride Bellerive on Clarence St confirm this is a hotbed of attacks, although I hasten to add the Collingwood jokes did not come from them. I’d hate to spark a Collingwood boycott of the shop.
There is no mystery behind these attacks. Magpies are simply responding to a supposed threat close to nest sites in spring, and are trying to drive “invaders” away.
Outside the bike shop I also noted masked lapwings on the grass verges, the “plovers” as they are generally known in Tasmania, being another species engaging in attacks on people in spring.
There is a major difference between the two species, however, beyond the fact that magpies nest in trees and plovers on the ground. Despite their swooping attacks, the plovers are harmless and do not pack a punch in their blunt beaks.
The magpie certainly deserves far more caution. The magpie’s bill has a very sharp, hooked tip and this can cause serious injury to the eyes if they are not protected.
BirdLife Australia has advice on how to avoid magpie attack. Walkers should avoid known areas where magpies are behaving aggressively. If this is not possible, they are advised to wear a wide-brimmed hat or, best of all, shelter under an umbrella.
A helmet, of course, aids cyclists, preferably one that has a peak over the eyes. Some research suggests painting a face on either a hat or helmet also wards off attack. Magpies prefer to attack from behind and will avoid coming face-to-face with an enemy, although this certainly does not seem to apply where victims have sustained facial injury.
What doesn’t work is painting a bright pattern on a helmet, which seems to rile the magpies even further. A fellow St Kilda fan once painted the club’s black-cross logo to no avail. He may have just as well painted an eagle, a hawk, or a crow.