Swooping

From some time in August to November, it’s considered magpie season here in Australia. It’s the season when magpies are protecting young and swoop potential invaders. I’ve been swooped a few times over the years. Both boys have been swooped when young. Game Fanatic got pecked slightly under the nose, I think when he was a toddler. Lego Lover got attacked near the eye, which was pretty scary. He didn’t suffer any serious injury but has since had a fear of the birds. Once I had a magpie swoop me while riding my bike. Not once, not twice, but three times as I peddled faster and faster. I think that was one of the rogues around that swooped throughout the year. I’ve had a certain wariness of them myself since that time decades ago.

In recent years I have not been swooped at all though, even though I see them all the time. On the other hand, I was swooped yesterday at the end of our street but it was by a willie wagtail. And that one swooped me three times while I was trying to walk one of the dogs. Not that it caused any injury but it was offputting and distracting. I have heard many people say these birds are nastier than magpies although I usually hear about the nastiness to other birds. This isn’t the first time I was swooped by one either. It happened around the same tree about a week or two ago, although it wasn’t quite so persistent.

The willie wagtail is a much smaller bird but apparently, it’s part of the same family of ravens and crows as the magpie. But I’ve never heard of them swooping before.