cat among the magpies

[tricia]

I spent a fascinating half hour earlier today watching a ginger/white cat trying to get at a pair of magpies who seemed to be enjoying themselves teasing it. They would hop really close cawing like mad then hop out of reach when the cat got too near for safety. I snapped them through the patio doors so the piccies aren't very good, but you can see the cat and the two birds quite well.The cat looked straight at me whenever I got close to the glass but the magpies were too intent on baiting the cat to take any notice of me.

The view is a bit foreshortened as there is a lane between my garden wall and the lopped trees.

Tricia

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I tried to enlarge the piccies but they were then too large so I've just enlarged the best of them.

[tricia]

[Jayb]

I couldn't see the cat for a few moments, he is really well camouflaged amongst the branches. Must have been amazing to watch  :)

[Gordonmull]

I watched a very similar scene last year with two blackbirds and my two young female tabbies.

It was only when I spotted the source of all the trouble I realised what was going on - a fledgling in the hedge. The parents were distracting the cats by using this exact behaviour. Landing real close and squacking their heads off. Might have been the same thing happening.

Cats were removed, fledgling was captured under swooping angry parents and was returned to the trees. Whew - another bloody corpse avoided!

[tricia]

The magpies weren't nesting anywhere close by - unless the nest was in the big evergreen, but that is over a hundred meters along the road - no, the birds were really amusing themselves baiting the cat!

Tricia

[Gordonmull]

Fantastic! I know corvids are smart birds but that really takes the cake. Must have been quite something to see.