Magpie in a trap.......

tuckmeister · #1 (**permalink**) 17-05-2009, 07:26 PM

I recently visited an area just outside Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire and stumbled across a Magpie in one half of a trap. It was being supplied with food and water. Why would anyone be trying to trap Magpies?

tameblackbirds · #2 (**permalink**) 17-05-2009, 07:31 PM

how do you know it was ment for Magpies? and not some other creature

Hedge Witch · #3 (**permalink**) 17-05-2009, 07:32 PM

They trap and kill the "visitor" to the captive bird, or pass it on, to start another trap.

It was a fairly traumatic experience for me to see these as a child.

Hedge Witch · #4 (**permalink**) 17-05-2009, 07:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tameblackbirds

how do you know it was ment for Magpies? and not some other creature

It's an established method of controlling magpies, although I had hoped it had died out/become illegal. The target magpies will come down to feed where the captive bird is, and once captured, its neck is wrung - job done! Certainly isn't a case of two for joy!

EDIT Just plucked up the courage to look it up. The sort I remember is called a Larsen trap, I believe. I think they are still sold.

Mungo · #5 (**permalink**) 17-05-2009, 07:56 PM

Is this legal then?

Who sets them?

Kayleigh · #6 (**permalink**) 17-05-2009, 07:57 PM

Here is a trap I found in a field last year or so..
Only this one had a duck or hen in it....
The bird was removed when we went back to take the pic..here is the cage.

Chicken in a cage in a field

Jenny W · #7 (**permalink**) 17-05-2009, 08:01 PM

It is legal and is necessary in certain situations for example in the protection of rare breeding birds. Farmers also use them for corvid control.

salukiwhippet · #8 (**permalink**) 17-05-2009, 08:03 PM

Perfectly legal for carrion crows, magpies, jays, jackdaws and rooks. Decoy bird has to have food, water, shelter and a perch. Magpies are controlled under the OGL to protect wild birds, stock or crops.

They're set by Gamekeepers, farmers, and others with an interest in conservation.

James

lincs lass · #9 (**permalink**) 17-05-2009, 08:27 PM

It's legal and there has been on 2 occasions a trap by my fence in the field (behind my garden) and this year it was on the neighbours land. They caught the 2 magpies, it's done because they attack baby pheasants and fledging/fledgling garden birds. The b******* took 3 baby wrens from my garden last year. The people who set the trap did ask if there was any objections to it being done. Nothing to do with me as it was not on my land and I know what magpies will do so I don't object.