Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Original poster

I saw something out of the ordinary today…

112 replies

boatyardblues · 30/09/2023 21:18

I heard high pitched squeaking as I walked to my car and saw a magpie drop a live mouse on the pavement and then peck at it. I didn’t know magpies could catch mice.

What did you see today that you weren’t expecting?

OP posts:
Clawdy · 01/10/2023 08:15

I wasn't too keen on magpies till I read Wakenhyrst by Michelle Paver. One bit of the story is where a lonely child finds and rears a magpie chick, she calls it Chatterpie, which is a very old name for them. Now I love watching them in the garden! So much prefer them to the pesky pigeons.

MyCircumference · 01/10/2023 08:17

a man demanded that the older sister, i assume, bring the toddler out of the dirty public loos and do her wee outside,
which she promptly, toddler weeing outside the public loos was not a sight i expected to see
i mean i know the floor was wet but they were not that filthy

MistyBay · 01/10/2023 08:20

Leave poor magpies alone! Most birds will do this if they are big enough. For gods’ sake a bird has to eat. I bet half of you have cats and dogs which would think nothing of playing with and ripping the head off a small mammal.

get over your ‘selective survival’ judgment

MamaToABeautifulBoy · 01/10/2023 08:21

Continuing the 🦅 theme, a huge owl flew in front of my car at dusk yesterday. Was a spectacular sight. Nature is incredible.

MistyBay · 01/10/2023 08:22

Daffodilsandtuplips · 01/10/2023 07:56

A crow brings me gifts, ( I leave a bowl of water out for any passing bird) I was sitting outside in the sun and dropped a piece of apple on the ground one day, he was sat on the fence and hopped down for the apple, took it back to the fence to eat it and came back for a drink. I did the same the following few days. Noticed him sat in his usual place with something in his beak. He flew down, dropped a stone on the patio then pushed it towards me with his beak. He leaves stones, a cherry pip once and other little oddments. I googled it and apparently they do this and he’s bonded with me.

Oh my god. This has made my day! 😍

femfemlicious · 01/10/2023 08:24

Hummusanddipdip · 30/09/2023 21:49

I did not know that about magpies, i do know theyre evil fuckers though - crows are just as bad!

I watched dh bake and decorate a cake with ds today - not necessarily unusual except...

Dh has never baked a cake in his life, but ds said he'd like to make a cake today with daddy specifically. Dh asked me to write a list and off they went to the shop, bought everything, I showed him the best recipe to use, they followed it and made a lovely vanilla sponge decorated with vanilla icing and animal biscuits...

They're now doing bedtime in a teepee in mine and dh bedroom. I've had a lovely day cleaning bathrooms/bedrooms, the livingroom and doing washing while they've baked and built 🤣 it's been lovely hearing them and better yet, they cleaned and washed up after themselves! So the kitchen doesn't need cleaning this weekend (usually dh and I share cleaning on saturdays anyway, but today they had a daddy and son day)

This sounds really lovely and wholesome. Your son is really lucky

Wallywobbles · 01/10/2023 08:43

Magpies and crows are really intelligent even if they are not very PC. There's a brilliant episode of there's no such thing as a fish about them. It'll change your preconceptions about them.

open.spotify.com/episode/2cEgxsQlCk1nN1QS4ycIvz

Boredandborder · 01/10/2023 09:17

Magpies are the worst. They strip the nests in hedgerows, not just eggs, babies too. They're like the raptors in Jurassic Park. Where gamekeepers control numbers, songbird numbers are recovering.

Callipygion · 01/10/2023 09:26

Butteredtoast55 · 30/09/2023 23:03

A bit of a grim question but what creature is beheading birds? I've seen this quite often this year?

A previous cat we had used to catch rats and eat the head, leaving it's bum outside the back door for us to find (nearly every morning).

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 01/10/2023 09:27

The answer to a crossword clue (title of a book written by author B-L, 3,4,4,2,7)
A couple of hours later I was dusting (very rare occurrence!) a shelf of ancient books that had belonged to dh’s DPs and GDPs.

Almost the last one I took off the shelf - lettering on spine was v old and faded but lo, there it was - The Last Days Of Pompeii by B-L.

Bluevelvetsofa · 01/10/2023 09:45

DH noticed a blue tit sitting quite happily in the (empty) log burner. Absolutely no idea how it got there. He managed to release it and it flew off quite happily.

ItWorriesMeThisKindofThing · 01/10/2023 09:48

SVFXHMX42 · 01/10/2023 08:14

Swans causing a major holdup on Friday. We have an abundance of swans locally but they don't generally stroll along the roads, calm as you like.

Please tell me someone went up and said “no luck catching them swans, then”

ArseInTheCoOpWindow · 01/10/2023 09:49

A squirrel with a massive conker in its mouth.

KatnissNeverdone · 01/10/2023 09:56

It's just the one swan actually.

SerendipityJane · 01/10/2023 10:38

I'm sure magpies have pranked me.

A couple of years ago was washing up (out kitchen faces the road) and a goose walked past on the pavement. Intrigued I followed it down the road for about 50 yards, filming it. It was totally undistressed and uninterested in me following it. I had to stop as I only had slippers on, and saw it carry on to the bottom of the road where it disappeared down an alley.

This is suburban Birmingham.

We also get stories of deer all over the place. Getting their heads stuck in railings seems to be a pastime of theirs.

Mountaineer0009 · 01/10/2023 10:38

Escaped sheep

Catsmere · 01/10/2023 11:43

MyCircumference · 01/10/2023 08:17

a man demanded that the older sister, i assume, bring the toddler out of the dirty public loos and do her wee outside,
which she promptly, toddler weeing outside the public loos was not a sight i expected to see
i mean i know the floor was wet but they were not that filthy

I saw that once in a Melbourne suburb, a woman getting her toddler son to take a crap in the gutter outside the public toilets. 🤢

BadBadDecisions · 01/10/2023 11:49

He's still not quite over it @Tilllly 😁😁

Original poster
boatyardblues · 01/10/2023 14:18

Petrine · 01/10/2023 08:08

A really large dead seal on the rocks. It looked ready to explode! I’m hoping the tide will take it out to sea.

Just thank your lucky stars you didn’t have my old Labrador with you. He would rolled on/in it. 🤮

OP posts:
BristolBlueGlasses · 01/10/2023 14:34

I don't understand why there's not more made of the devastating effect of magpies and crows on songbird populations. Every spring I watch nest after nest emptied by these birds. What kills magpies and crows? I wish something would.

HoraceTheLlama · 01/10/2023 14:35

Bluevelvetsofa · 01/10/2023 09:45

DH noticed a blue tit sitting quite happily in the (empty) log burner. Absolutely no idea how it got there. He managed to release it and it flew off quite happily.

This happened to us with a starling. We were watching tv and could hear a tapping noise, the starling was tapping on the glass trying to get our attention 😀

Dontcallmescarface · 01/10/2023 15:03

A squirrel tapping at my patio doors. No idea why he chose to get down from the tree, run across a road, climb over a fence and pass 7 houses before knocking on my door. Maybe the random duck (that cba to fly the 2 minutes it would have taken to get to the massive pond in the nearby field), sat under the tree in my garden told him I was a soft touch.

Hummusanddipdip · 01/10/2023 15:18

femfemlicious · 01/10/2023 08:24

This sounds really lovely and wholesome. Your son is really lucky

Show quote history

Thank you, he is extremely lucky that dh is so hands on.
I have to say it made a nice change to them wrestling or building huge train tracks that take over the livingroom. Much more delicious activity 😋

I read somewhere that pigeons are the biggest destroyers of crops in the UK and thanks to Chris Peckham, along with crows, magpies etc (as mentioned upthread) farmers aren't allowed to shoot them either...

femfemlicious · 01/10/2023 15:50

Hummusanddipdip · 01/10/2023 15:18

Thank you, he is extremely lucky that dh is so hands on.
I have to say it made a nice change to them wrestling or building huge train tracks that take over the livingroom. Much more delicious activity 😋

I read somewhere that pigeons are the biggest destroyers of crops in the UK and thanks to Chris Peckham, along with crows, magpies etc (as mentioned upthread) farmers aren't allowed to shoot them either...

Show quote history

I really wish my girls had a daddy like this instead of the absolute asshole they have.

Tilllly · 01/10/2023 15:57

Squirrel 🐿️ today

Raiding the canker tree behind our garden and burying them around our shrubs - and in the tubs 🤣

Swipe left for the next trending thread