I remember a game of cricket where we almost had to call the game off because three separate magpies were aggressively swooping everybody in the vicinity. One guy got a decent chunk out of his head while running in to bowl. Another poor guy refused to field on the boundary line without a helmet.
It was carnage. Until one guy took one out with a cricket bat... then it got weird.
There were seagulls and a couple of other species pecking at this brown paper bag outside Maccas, getting nowhere.
I was feeding a flock of seagulls once on the beach and one of the seagulls had his neck torn open and all the neck guts were falling everywhere. He didn't seem to care he just kept asking for more chips.
We used to get swooped by plovers whilst doing huff and puff at primary school. And then get swooped by magpies on the way home. and then get swooped by plovers in the horse paddock next door. It makes me laugh these days thinking of what we must have looked like: small children with comically large backpacks hitting the deck when the magpies came swooping down.
Are plovers those ■■■■■ that swoop you at night?
There were seagulls and a couple of other species pecking at this brown paper bag outside Maccas, getting nowhere.
I was feeding a flock of seagulls once on the beach and one of the seagulls had his neck torn open and all the neck guts were falling everywhere. He didn't seem to care he just kept asking for more chips.
Guess their career has struggled since the 80s.
Are plovers those ***** that swoop you at night?
I'm not good on bird names apart from the obvious ones. Never been swooped at night. That would scare the living suitcase out of you I reckon.
Are plovers those ***** that swoop you at night?
I'm not good on bird names apart from the obvious ones. Never been swooped at night. That would scare the living suitcase out of you I reckon.
I think the birds at night are called bats.
Ah ha. Do bats swoop? I think they just accidentally fly over your head don't they?
I was walking home late one night in eltham and this farking big Tawny Frogmouth came floating in straight over my head and landed on a snake laying on the path straight in front of me. Absolutely frightened the bejesus out of me. It just calmly looked down at the snake and then at me and proceeded to fly back the way it came - straight at me! I hit the deck! Farking big snake too, writhing around as it flew by me.
No I hadn't been drinking. But needed one when I got home.
Yeah, frogmouths and owls can scare the crap out of you when they swoop in low at night. They're so quiet you'll never hear their wings flap, so the first warning you get is them appearing in your face. The big Powerful Owls are absolutely massive too, nearly 2m across the wings. Definitely potential for an Underwear Change Necessitating Event.
Bats don't swoop generally, though if a flying fox has been eating on a low tree it can take some time to get altitude again.
Yeah, frogmouths and owls can scare the crap out of you when they swoop in low at night. They're so quiet you'll never hear their wings flap, so the first warning you get is them appearing in your face. The big Powerful Owls are absolutely massive too, nearly 2m across the wings. Definitely potential for an Underwear Change Necessitating Event.
Bats don't swoop generally, though if a flying fix has been eating on a low tree it can take some time to get altitude again.
It's a great sight down in Ivanhoe at night watching all the bats flying overhead. Must be in the hundreds.
Yeah, frogmouths and owls can scare the crap out of you when they swoop in low at night. They're so quiet you'll never hear their wings flap, so the first warning you get is them appearing in your face. The big Powerful Owls are absolutely massive too, nearly 2m across the wings. Definitely potential for an Underwear Change Necessitating Event.
Bats don't swoop generally, though if a flying fix has been eating on a low tree it can take some time to get altitude again.
It's a great sight down in Ivanhoe at night watching all the bats flying overhead. Must be in the hundreds.
Yeah, I love those critters. I do a fair bit of work at the colony at Yarra Bend. There's about 30 000 there, though we lost something like 15% of the colony to heatstroke in the January heatwave.
Lovely little guys. Friendly, inquisitive, intelligent, and hilarious. One of my favourite animals to work with, just behind baby wombats.
I was walking home late one night in eltham and this farking big Tawny Frogmouth came floating in straight over my head and landed on a snake laying on the path straight in front of me. Absolutely frightened the bejesus out of me. It just calmly looked down at the snake and then at me and proceeded to fly back the way it came - straight at me! I hit the deck! Farking big snake too, writhing around as it flew by me.
No I hadn't been drinking. But needed one when I got home.
:lol: Hilarious! lol
Got hit by a pigeon once in France, l think it was an accident, trying to swoop on some food, don't know if that qualifies. The only close feathered encounter l have ever had.
Speaking of snakes, we have two of the world's top 10 venomous snake species 100m down the road at the wetland.
I get the feeling they're plotting something.
Had a 7 foot python drinking out of the dog's water bowl 2 days ago.
We've got plovers and magpies in the bottom paddock that don't mind swooping me when I'm working down there. B@stards.
I ■■■■■■■ hate them, I am a man of peace but I loose my mind when I am swooped by a magpie, easily my biggest fear, got swooped like crazy every spring growing up.
I have this desire to kill everyone of them I see, violently.
I never do though
I ride through Plow Street, Thornbury daily and I’ve seen up to 20 magpies in that short section. They all seem to be socially well-adjusted, though; no issues.
Occasionally I get falcons et al after my boomerangs. The scariest (and funniest, when you weren’t the thrower) was when one decided it would repeatedly swoop in during a Trick Catch contest. It’d be sitting on a tree behind you as you waited for the rang to come down, then would swoop in for the kill just before the rang got into catching range.
Got to agree, crows can be pretty smart. I once took my kids rock-climbing at the Cathedral Ranges. My daughter left her back-pack at the base of the climb. We were about 50 meters up, belayed on a ledge and this crow floats down and lands beside her pack. It then proceeds to undo the zip and pull out a full box of Cheezels. It neatly opened the top of the box and the liner inside. As we sat on the ledge, yelling abuse, it casually munched its way through the contents. Couldn't have cared less. It obviously knew there was nothing we could do about it. :(
You could have ditched a rock at it.
Could have if we'd had one. Pretty bare ledge, from memory.