More on Saturday's Canungra discussion re Eye hunting Magpies

On the Tamborine to Lamington NP ride Saturday, discussion turned to Magpies at one stage. I spoke briefly of my close encounter in October 2008, which I had posted on RoadGrime. BruceG asked to see the photo so here it is ... hope the link works

Magpie attack

The photo was taken at home by one of my sons probably about 20 minutes after the attack.

Attack occurred really quickly as I was travelling along Nudgee Road and crossing over Toombul Road on the light change. I can remember being unsure as to whether I should be worrying more about the magpie or the trucks passing close by at the time.

The maggie was big and really aggressive - kept hovering and re-striking at my eyes on both sides. When I fended on one side, he would attack on the other, so there was a delay when I had to change hands on the bars to push him off the side
of my helmet.

I can remember walking into the little store up from the lights, but the person behind the counter just stood there immobile and speechless. I would no doubt have been a sight with both eyes streaming blood. Somehow I pedalled home and family took me into St Andrews emergency.

I had Adidas sports prescription glasses on at the time but they were not a full wraparound style that hugs the side of the face.

All in all I was very lucky to escape without long term injury.

Left eye was the worst with 4 strikes and the upper eyelid torn, nipped rather than strikes I presumed. Fluorescent dye testes showed that the corneas on both eyes had been scratched and fortunately they healed within a week or so.

Unsurprisingly, I am careful to wear protective glasses in magpie season. I tend to go for safety rated wrap around glasses. My PA at work bought me a set of full on set of googles. I did try them on my first subsequent ride, but they did fog up quickly and weren't very cool....!

There was a real saga posted in my OP thread about dealing with the bird and the red tape around native birds, but that is another story.

Cheers Scott

Wow Scott, thats horrendous!

As we said yesterday, I'm all for protecting the countries native fauna, but when this sort of thing happens, especially the young girl losing the sight in one eye recently, I think it's totally irresponsible for councils and the like to fob this off as nothing really serious!!
Shoot the f*ckers I say.

It's okay for society to remove humans ie, gaol, when they break the laws, but it's TOO hard to relocate a dangerous bird!!

Friggin brilliant Scott!!!
"My wife recalled the local copper coming to her school where she taught, to deal with the magpie attacking the kids. He just pulled out the .22 and ended the problem. Ahh....Back in the good old days :hmmm:"


http://www.smh.com.au/environment/animals/search-for-magpie-that-partly-blinded-boy-20110923-1ko8n.html


http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/27908967

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/swooping-magpie-blamed-for-death-of-ipswich-boy-who-was-hit-by-a-car/story-e6freoof-1225916411678

And Lauren Seawright's traumatic attack by the KBB magpie a few days ago could have been avoided if the BCC woke up to itself.

http://www.couriermail.com.au/questnews/central/magpie-attack-leaves-10yo-with-eye-damage/story-fn8m0qb4-1226491845745

Barrie Mead, a HPRW rider, has been attacked twice by the Kedron Brook (Gordon Park, Lutwyche) magpie
It's obviously attempting to take eyes out.




My sunglass wearing mate got hit last Thurs when we were riding side by side.

This was Lyndell's experience with the same KBB magpie a few weeks ago
http://www.pic.twitter.com/cqKMXUgv

not loading Phil

Bugger... sadly, it's beyond my technical capabilities to make it happen.

Got a call from BCC today, about 5 weeks after I wrote my complaint.
They told me they contracted a magpie catcher to trap it, and the magpie wouldn't go in the trap, so game over.

I asked for the name of the catcher, and phoned them to find out what their success rate for catching magpies is.
This guy sounded like a career eco public servant and spun more verbose crap than I've heard in a long time.
He basically said the magpie wouldn't go in the trap too. I asked if that was it, end of contract and all?
He said, no he will be monitoring the bird from time to time in the future to see if is still naughty.

He also gave me the usual spin about how cyclists must set the birds off (to start attacking cyclists) because they don't attack walkers, etc. I didn't bother explaining how magpies in rural areas where cyclists rarely ride also are readily attacked, and to my mind the whole 'set them off' story is total bunk created by bearded aspergic eco wnkrs to do nothing but sit in a nice office and pontificate.

Anyway, BCC reckons they have covered their legal liability if a kid gets both corneas scratched so bad she is permanently blinded. Yep, the signs they put out on the path cover their liability. They also think it is a State govt responsibility to remove birds.

So essentially, I got a lot of inconsistent BS, with the final word from Qld Fauna Consultancy being that the bird wouldn't go in the cage.
And these are Qld's gun fauna behavorial experts. Obviously the guys is contracted and will be paid to "try and catch the magpie". If he is unsuccessful, he still gets paid.

No wonder this country is going to the magpies.

That is f*cking ridiculous Bruce. This country, and the people that ultimately run it, have their heads buried so far up their own asses it's unbelievable!!
And these wankers wonder why people take the law into their own hands!

Just shoot the f*cking thing FFS. It's a magpie, who cares?
And if some 'hairy armpitted do-gooding greenie' wants to object, send them down there with there 'little Johnny or Jemima', and see how much they scream when their precious offspring gets it's eye taken out!

Rant over

Yeah Phil, the joke is on us for letting w-ankers like this get paid real money to feel part of society.

The twirp from BCC sarcastically said, "there's more dangerous animals around than magpies you know"
I nearly fell over...obviously no friggin idea about the profoundness of being totally blind.

I just don't get how institutions such as councils cannot find smarter people to put in control of these things.

Beam me up Scotty.