A couple of years ago one of my cycling companions was knocked unconscious by one of them. She initially had no idea what caused her to be on the ground beside her bike with an ambulance crew in attendance, but later remembered the dreaded black-and-white feathery presence that had nearly caused her demise.
This year it's the turn of
another of my fellow bikers. Bob reported being swooped by about eight
separate birds within a couple of hours the other day, with one of them
taking a piece out of his ear. So I joined him on a mission to track
down the offenders, get the photographic evidence, and expose their
heinous crimes publicly. We retraced his route along the Western Sydney
bike paths, with me following him at a safe distance, my camera ready.
This time we encountered four of the warrior birds, defending their separate territories. All of them swooped him without warning, one giving him a thump as it passed. In two cases the bird went back for several more goes, resting momentarily on branches or power lines between attacks. Needless to say I was never quite ready enough with the camera for the impact shots, but you can get the idea from this series of pics.
We noticed that the attacks all came on his first run past the bird. When he came back for the staged re-enactment photo shoot, the bird would hold off, just watching moodily from a distance. I think that by turning round and coming back, Bob had won the battle and shown he was top bird. And the thing had noticed Bob had a friend with a gun (camera actually).
It's said that magpies identify particular humans, dividing them into friends and enemies on some unknown basis. They have very long memories too, and once you're down as an enemy, you're marked for life.
No comments:
Post a Comment