to be super shitey-scared of single magpies?

[0898]

Or rather the perceived doom that they may convey?

I am not superstitious about anything else. Broken mirrors can fuck off and black cats can do one.

But one single magpie puts the right willies up me as harbinger of ill will.

Someone once told me that if you spit at them it counteracts the potential 'sorrow' Spitting is the most revolting habit available, so instead I just do a little bubble to myself. Only last week I did a full-on dribble down my chin and got a horrified look from a passer-by.

Please tell me what a twat I am and why one magpie spotted on a school run will not lead to my imminent ruin.

I don't like that, Sultan. Not one bit.

You lot are supposed to be telling me that I'm VVVVVU and not giving me more ammunition!

I was always taught you had to touch your thumb and ring finger together then get someone to 'break my sorrow' by parting them with their finger.

Cheers Mum.

Mine is "good morning Mr Magpie, how's the wife and kids?".

While doing a cross between a salute and a forehead scratching / hair fiddling gesture. Don't want to look weird now do I .

I love magpies - they're probably my favourite birds! I always salute them and even say 'good morning/afternoon/evening' to them. I think they're lovely birds!

Who or what is going to ensure that bad luck follows you if you don't salute/spit at/say good morning to a single magpie? If you figure that out maybe you can figure out how to not be afraid of them

The crows of course.

I thought that if you said "Morning Mr Magpie, how's the wife?" it acknowledged that there are TWO of them, and the wife is around somewhere?

We had some magpies round our way about 20 years back who all had deformed beaks - long and curled down a bit, I did feel rather sorry for them as they gradually got scrawny and inevitably disappeared.

DS is superstitious about magpies. He has an enamelled RSPB magpie badge pinned to the inside of his coat so that he can look at that if he spots one.
Easier than a tattoo.
Has anything bad actually happened to you, immediately after seeing a single magpie? More than three times?

i hate magpies but not for superstitious reasons

they eat the hen's eggs by going into the henhouse

they make BASTARD machine gunfire noises at BASTARD 4am at the BASTARD weekend when i'm trying to sleep in after leaving for work at 5am during the week

I would prefer to listen to the magpies cackling than the bastarding seagulls screaming and landing on our roof. I swear they're like albatross, and when they're walking around up there they're like albatross dragging dead albratross about.

Bastards

Downbytheriverside - nothing bad has ever happened, but then I always greet and do the forelock thing. Proof enough to carry on. You can't fault the logic.

Though I don't dwell on it. 8 seconds after the sighting I'm back to "...ooh, squirrel!"

i'll send you the magpies, you send me the seagulls

I see loads where I walk my dogs, I not infrequently see 5 or 6 and no gold or silver has been forthcoming, so I don't take it too seriously...but whenever I see one I can't help scanning for another and muttering a greeting if I don't see it!

That's a deal Petula

I do a lot of wildlife photography (for work and fun) and in my 'birds' picture library I have 120 photos of single magpies. Plus 18 photos of two or more magpies.

Someone once asked me if they could use this one of a flying magpie on a book cover for a self-published book about Newcastle United. I said yes if they paid me, and I never heard from them again, so I guess I experienced mild sorrow about that.

(Also here's a photo of two magpies sitting on a horse, so that people who look at this post don't just see one magpie.)

does the "one in flight saves your plight" thing have any credence?

Because I may have attempted to make single magpies fly away. By waving my arm at them while pretending to wave at someone else. Or swat a fly.

Oh, the web of subterfuge and lies I have created!

This will totally out me .. when I was going for my first scan I saw 8 magpies on the road at 6am.
The scan showed 2 foetus that turned out to be boys
I'm the least superstitious person but always salute now for insurance

YABU but you gave me the best laugh I've had all day at your spit bubble. I say 'Good morning' and then make a spitting sound quietly under my breath, and my husband tugs his forelock and says 'Hello Mr Magpie, how's the misses?' This whole thread is fascinating.

Tbh though I find ravens a whole lot more sinister.

Now ravens are beautiful. I also have a tame-ish crow that lives in my garden, I'm very fond of it.