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Fish thieving magpies!

Morning All!

New member here, and in need of some help solving a Magpie problem!!

We've got a pond in the back garden with some goldfish, koi etc. It's a fairly new pond, so a lot of the plants aren't particularly well established just yet - they're getting there, but the fish can still be quite exposed.

We noticed that some of the fish had gone missing, and so immediately assumed it was a Heron - so we went out and bought a heron statue to get rid. Thinking the problem was solved, we were sat in the conservatory one day watching a magpie happily plodding around the edge of the pond - next thing it lunged in and grabbed a goldfish before retreating to the shed roof to rip it apart! Turns out there was never any Herons, its the bl**dy magpies! I knew they were scroungers, but didn't realised they liked Sushi straight from the pond!

Anybody got any suggestions for getting rid of the little swines? We've tried netting the pond, but the Magpies just wait at the borders and peck through the mesh. We've added a floating 'predator eye' thing which supposedly scares off all birds (obviously everything except Magpies!).

I've seen the expensive electircal deterrants, but didn't want to fork out the money on one of those just for the Magpies to ignore it anyway. So just wondering if anyone has any suggestions of getting rid of the little beggars!?

Cheers,

Paul

 

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  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,138

    That's the first time I've heard of that! 

    Although we did have magpies deconstruct the edge of our pond earlier in the year taking mud for their nests .........


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • Paul D85Paul D85 Posts: 4

    Yeah, the guy in our local fish supplies shop said he'd never heard of Magpies stealing fish in the whole time he'd been in the job! To be honest, i'd never have believed it myself if i hadn't saw it with my own eyes.

    The Magpies around mine obviously enjoy a little finer dining!

  • Snow MaidenSnow Maiden Posts: 862

    Funny you should post about this.....we have lived in our house for 33yrs and have never spotted a heron ( and I am a keen g/bird watcher) but a couple of weeks ago we found a large koi,half eaten in our garden and as we don't have a pond we thought this was a bit strange. We do however have quite a few magpies.!!

  • Invicta2Invicta2 Posts: 663

    Magpies are certainly adept at getting food. Twenty years ago I remember walking in an old cemetery when I saw a magpie hanging around the base of a headstone. Looking closer there was an underground wasps' nest, with regular stream of wasps going in and out. Every so often the the magpie plucked a wasp out of the stream and consumed it. The wasps failed to take any action against the magpie. 

  • Magpies will take anything if it's not nailed down!  Every day for almost a week i watched a blackbird happily making her nest, then she happily laid 4 eggs and then spent most of her time sitting on them waiting for them to hatch..........you've guessed, the thieving magpies took the lot!   So we now have a new nest, hardly lived in, and empty apart from one broken eggshell.   So if there are any blackbirds out there looking for somewhere to live, i have the ideal home for you!  Just a bit of advice.... please don't plan on having a family as you may be disappointed as the last couple were!!

  • Green MagpieGreen Magpie Posts: 806

    The electronic animal scarers seem to work well. You can get solar powered ones  on Amazon for about £ 14, and they can easily be moved around to other locations as required.

  • I've just realised magpies are doing this in our fish pone.  It's been recently cleaned out as we bought the house it hadnot been cleaned for ages.  However I'm going to try Amazon for the scarers unless anyone has a better idea as the last blog was a year ago.

  • Paul D85Paul D85 Posts: 4

    Hi! Completely forgot about starting this post. 

    In the end i tried one of these...

    http://www.harrodhorticultural.com/mobile/heron-reflector-pid9217.html

    Seemed to do the trick in scaring off our magpies. They visit every now and again, but they keep their distance from the pond. Got mine from our local pet shop fairly cheap, but you can probably find them on eBay or something. Havent lost a fish since getting one. 

    if that hadn't worked, my next alternative was an air rifle! image

    Last edited: 04 June 2016 09:55:40

  • I have this year lost 15 ish fish from my Pond and yes blamed the local Heron but today I was right there when a Magpie came down to the shallow and took a fish I am sure it looked over its shoulder at me as it flew away. I have now removed the pebbles making that end deeper and created an overhang with thin fence boards and covered them with pebbles, looks fine and gives the fish a chance to dive down and away. 9/06/2016 ?

  • michael mpcmichael mpc Posts: 422

    hi to above in all my years as a field sports man that is first  time  that I have heard  that  with so many lost fish to magpies must be right I know they are egg theves and harm chicks   se even at 73 still learn something new  thanks to above    image

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