Jameson and the Magpie

[carl (billy and baggys dad)]

Aye, a lot of Bilbo's victims pretend to be dead, then once the opportunity arises, off they scamper. The last one (a little shrew) did the same thing - I had it in my hands to take outside and bury, and it came to life and scuttled off.

I'm like yerself Jamesonsmum - I reckon it's fascinating to watch Bilbo and what he does naturally, but it's nice when his victims escape unharmed.

[Dark Moon]

Yes, birds Do do this. Sometimes, of course (and sadly) it is their last desperate try - and they will die from their injuries. But they are hugely resilient. Astonishingly so, given how seemingly fragile they are.

I have rescued many from the mouths of my babes. Some subsequently died and left me wondering whether I did them any favours (a slow death as opposed to...) but many more survived. The cats, of course, always 100% considered this a total betrayal and were p.o.'d... I actually have had to keep them in or otherwise distract them because they would be right back looking for the prize their Mum had so rudely snatched from them.

But seeing those who do 'come back to life' .... it's like watching one whose neck you thought was broken from his whang into the window recover......  One only hopes they learned something (about cats as well as windows) from their experience.

[puddypaws]

I don't know about other bird species, but some of the young of birds of prey will play dead if they think they arein danger.

[swampmaxmum]

There were magpies feasting on our communal garden lawn yesterday and they are big! Jameson's next project is what - a duck? 

[clarenmax]

Wow, that's one lucky Magpie lol!  I bet Jameson was most annoyed 

The little girl cat next door is tiny, but she managed to bring down a huge pigeon in our garden last year, I've no idea how she managed it 

[Bryony84]

One of our cats did something like this when I was little. She came into the kitchen with a starling in her mouth to show me how clever she was. Unfortunately she wasn't as clever as she thought because when I shook her biscuit box, she dropped the bird and went for the biccies. The bird was very much not dead and flew off round the kitchen!

Managed to catch it in the end and put it outside, off it flew looking perfectly ok!! I would imagine playing dead is something a lot of animals do, I've seen mice do it when they have been caught by a cat.

Well done to Jameson for catching a magpie - not small birds so thats quite an achievement!

[Maddiesmum]

Glad the Magpie was safe

[Bazsmum]

Oh  that's amazing! And they say its supposed to be unlucky just to see one....not for that bird it aint! 

[Susanne (urbantigers)]

   Very lucky magpie!

[swampmaxmum]

Hail Jameson Whitesox Hunter Supreme  ! he must have a soft mouth. I had a sweet fluffball called Moggy in CTown who was always furious that the birds she 'caught and killed' flew away. However maybe that was just one lucky magpie?! Horrible when they do that and bring it in to show you  Hope Jameson has recovered from his shock as well as the magpie did 

[tigerbaby]

So... Jameson has been a very happy little sprite recently, due to the sunny weather and all the exciting things that comes with it He has been out on so many adventures we've hardly seen him in the past few days.

Had been doing the weekly shopping, and was loading it in to the kitchen when I looked outside and saw the little rascal fast approaching the flap....with a gigantic magpie in his gob!! I yelled at the boy to lock the flap and while he was kerfuffling with the flap, Jameson looked confused and just sat outside - the magpie just hanging, lifeless. I wasn't sure if it was completely dead or not.

Boy opened the door and managed to get J away from the patio, when J jumped over the fence into our neighbours garden. He hunched down with the bird still in his mouth. The magpie was huge - we had no idea how on earth it would even fit in J's mouth! (Jameson is a big boy - but so was the bird). We tried to work out if the bird was completely dead as we couldn't see any ''just-before-death twitches' so we assumed it was. However, the other magpies were crowding around the garden, sitting in the trees croaking like there was no tomorrow. Not just magpies, but other birds too. (we have loads of gardens and shrublands behind our garden/house so have lots of wildlife there). Jameson looked at us and every now and again dropped the bird, only to jump on it and grab it by the throat again.  The bird is definitely dead, we thought, there were no signs of any movements at all and we'd been standing there watching for about 5 minutes but couldn't work out why the other birds were making SUCH noise from the trees. At one point I thought they were all gathering to attack J.

All of a sudden, Jameson puts the bird down and in a SPLIT SECOND the birds flies off!!!!! We were gobsmacked - how on earth was that possible!!??? We saw it flying off, to join his fellow magpies and seemed totally fine. Didn't seem injured at all! We watched the bird join the other birds, and then flew off together. Jameson was very upset, and came running towards us meowing and crying.
(I was secretly pleased, because as much as I know this is nature, it still hurts me seeing him torture birds and mice)

We were saying that we think that the bird was pretending it was dead... because it was really hanging, lifeless out of his mouth throughout, and while he was dragging it around it was just hanging there, not one move or struggle. Not once did it move - it really looked like he was dead. Can birds do this?? Do they sometimes pretend to be dead to escape their preditors?

Anyway, again we were left speechless after it - nature is amazing, and to watch your cat be ''a cat'' and hunt like that is amazing. (although I always feel sorry for the poor victims, but at the end of the day, he is a cat and this is what he is designed to do!)