Rob and Tweeters,

First I will make my position on Black-billed Magpies absolutely clear:
they are my favorite bird species. They are intelligent and beautiful
and I think that when our species has slipped into extinction, the
coyotes will still have the magpies to keep them company. To my mind,
the magpie is THE bird of the west, at least the west this side of the
Cascades and Sierra Nevadas.

I think that some of the disdain for magpies (as for coyotes) out here in
cow country may stem from the commonly held belief among agriculturists
(particularly the older ones) that land ownership grants them the right
to the control of all things organic or mineral on, over or under said
land. Thus, they view critters such as magpies and coyotes the way
urbanites might view burglars and car prowlers. Magpies, together with
ravens and possibly crows, have been accused of attacking and injuring or
even killing newborn livestock. Now I've never seen such a thing myself
and if it does happen I imagine that it's a relatively rare occurrence,
but some people just can't tolerate competition, no matter how minor,
when they think it impinges on their livelihood. For my part, I don't
mind that they help themselves to dry dog food from my Chow Chow's food
dish by the front door and he apparently doesn't either.

I remember during the late 50's when I was a farmer's kid growing up on
the reservation out west of Harrah in the Yakima Valley that the sporting
goods department of the Monkey Wards store in Yakima was offering a
bounty of 5 cents for each pair of magpie legs. Well the BLM has
discovered with attempts at coyote control that even if you manage to
kill all the coyotes in an area, nature in it's famous hatred of a
vacuum, spills some over from adjacent areas to fill the gap and if you
only manage to kill most of the coyotes, then those remaining simply have
bigger litters and raise smarter pups. I believe that the same holds
true with magpies. Viva Corvidae ! Viva Pica pica !

Dennis K Rockwell, Kennewick, Washington denniskrockwell at juno.com

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