If You Want to Avoid Being Attacked by Magpies, Just Make an Effort to be Friends with Them

I've never been attacked by a magpie yet ... touch wood, but after reading this news story at the ABC news-site the other day I think I know why now, as I've always seen and acted towards magpies as my friends ... sort of like the way I treat crows, as my spirit animals.

 "Forget fake eyes and spiky helmets — if you want to avoid being attacked by magpies, just make an effort to be friends with them."

A metal magpie and surprise egg
 I bought for my home

Surprise, Kirby Says He is a Shaman?!

"Swooping magpies are common in Australia at this time of year, as male birds attempt to protect eggs and chicks in their nests from predators.

Official government websites give tips to avoid being swooped and a crowdsourced online map tracks reports of swooping magpies nationwide.
Some people go to great lengths to deter magpies from swooping, wearing fake eyes on the back of their head to fool the birds into thinking they are being watched."

My metal rooster and magpie in my backyard
as a real crow sits in my tree crowing

"But a magpie "will only swoop when he doesn't know somebody", said Gisela Kaplan, emeritus professor in animal behaviour at the University of New England and author of Bird Minds.
"We know that magpies remember and recognise human faces and they will remember them for years," Dr Kaplan told ABC Radio Melbourne's Sami Shah and Jacinta Parsons."

"Dr Kaplan said that once a magpie knew you and judged you to be a nice person, you would have earned a friend for life.
"They will form very long friendships, like dogs," she said."

A Powerful Owl Synchronicity at the BBWF For Me

The magpie from the 2016
Byron Writers Festival

The magpie I wrote about in the Powerful Owl post linked above actually greeted me at the entrance to the writers festival this year, but I didn't have my phone handy to snap a picture of it unfortunately.

And I'm sure the magpie recognized me from last year, too.

If it didn't then it sure acted like it did.

The photo of the crow I snapped this morning
after just posting this post. Synch?

Soon as I had posted this post, I went downstairs to make myself a coffee and there was my crow friend sitting in the same tree like in the photo I took a few days ago, which is at the top of this post.