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Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, December
12, 2007 12:00 PM
Subject: [canberrabirds]
Magpie-lark with attitude
After receivng the following message from a nearby
resident (I identified the bird as a magpie lark) I rode over to the
locale and watched her get attacked vigorously by a male magpie-lark every time
she ran through the bird's domain. It made no attempt to attack me on my
bike.
It is difficult for this lady to run anywhere without
passing this spot so "run somewhere else" doesn't work. From
HANZAB it appears that breeding is likely to have stopped by the end of this
month, but given the length of the current aggression I don't think this can be
guaranteed. It has actually caused her injury and doesn't seem to attack
anyone else (she is rather tall - my height plus) so getting the Council to do
something about the bird is a low probability option. I have suggested
trying the eyes on the back of the hat option. Does anyone have any other
ideas that I could pass on to her?
" ... every day I go running and I have been doing
this for the last 17 years without any bother at all until last August, when a
bird looking something like a miniature magpie with a high-pitched squeal of a
shriek but not a magpie and not a plover started swooping on me each time I
went down the street and back up again over a distance of about 150 m. I
figured that maybe it had a nest nearby but I never ventured off the road
because I was running and had no interest in trying to find the bird's nest. So
that was August, and it continued swooping on me twice each run, twice a day so
therefore four times a day in September, October, November and it is still doing
it in December long after any eggs that may have been laid should have hatched
and the offspring flown away.
"Over all this time, the bird has become more
aggressive. If I am wearing my sunhat it has actually come down and hit my
sunhat with its wings, it is out waiting for me at five o'clock in the morning
and the only time I can go running without being attacked by this bird is in
the middle of the night. When I run down the road I see it on a branch and as
soon as it sees me it swoops towards me and I have to put up my hand or hold up
a stick to keep it from attacking my head and I am getting rather tired of this
because the bird is getting closer and closer to doing me some damage for
whatever reason I have no idea because I have never left the road because I am
running."
