Smoking magpie

[~T~]

I saw the oddest sight this morning. As I was walking to work I spotted a magpie pecking at something on the pavement up ahead of me. As I got closer I realised it was a lit cigarette (maybe just under half smoked) and it lifted it in its beak as if it was smoking it I frantically fumbled with my phone trying to get a pic but it took off with it's prize as soon as it spotted me. Even the birds in Glasgow live the unhealthy life

[FUDGEY]

Are you sure it was a Magpie? Could have been a Fagpie (Ill get my coat) Be funny to see that Probably took it to line its nest, foung a lot of these in various nests.

[~T~]

Originally Posted by FUDGEY

Are you sure it was a Magpie? Could have been a Fagpie (Ill get my coat) Be funny to see that Probably took it to line its nest, foung a lot of these in various nests.

[thebeard]

Originally Posted by FUDGEY

Probably took it to line its nest, foung a lot of these in various nests.

the nest wouldnt last long if it were lit then!

[Deb London]

Ahh, shame you didn't get the shot. Funny story though.

[sunnydale]

Indeed! The little devils will take off with anything they can get hold of!

[2dogs2000]

This bird behaviour has been responsible for setting thatched roofs on fire. I am not blaming the bird, just the idiot who threw the cigarette.

I would have liked to have seen the magpie though.

[werdnal]

What a strange sight, but knowing magpies they love anything unusual.

A lad up the road when we were young, found a magpie fledgling - Mary, raised her, and she became real entertainment for us - somehow she seemed to spend more time at our house than his! She used to bang on the window in the morning when my dad got up for work, to be given some breakfast. Then she'd taunt the neighbour's cat into chasing her around the garden. She'd sit on my shoulder and try to pull my earrings out. She pinched 50p once and flew off with it never to be seen again. She would unpeg washing from the line. She took a box of matches once and emptied them all over the garden. She would pick up little stones and drop them through the holes in car wheel trims, and when you drove up the road the car would make an awful noise. She used to look out for the milkman entering the bottom of the estate and ride on his float, taking the tops of the bottles - he had to keep a few empty crates and put them on top to protect his cargo!

Sadly, although she seemed to know all the local kids, anyone who was visiting and not part of her patch, was "roughed up" a bit, and once day she frightened a little girl from the neighbouring street so much, she went home crying to her mum who then made a formal complaint to the lad up the road to get rid of Mary. Apparently he took her several miles away and released her in some woodland, which now I understand probably wasn't the right thing to do, as magpies being territorial, and she so humanised in her behaviour, I doubt she lasted long

[witham]

ouch!! was just thinking if it tried to feed it to one of its young

[actionfinch]

Must of been the stress of being a parent....