‘Good morning/afternoon Mr Magpie’

[Sunrise6875]

Does anyone else HAVE to say this, whilst touching something black?

Where does it even come from?

If you know, you know

Me and dd salute single magpies before dinnertime. We say morning mr magpie hows the wife and family.
I can often be seen biking down the A180 at five in the morning on the way to work madly saluting magpies.

Ha ha, I thought I was the only one who saluted and said "Good morning Mr Magpie". I've found my people. My DP and kids think I'm loopy.

No I don’t. Neither do I avoid black cats, ladders, or refuse to put washing on on New Year’s Day or any other superstitious rubbish.

Morning Mr magpie, how's the wife and kids?
Salute a lone one or frantically search for a second one. I've never heard the 12pm rule but I expect I will now adhere to it

“Good morning Mr Magpie, how's your wife and family”

Only for single magpies though. I always look for the other one.

I'm in Yorkshire and here we have to salute a single magpie and say "Morning/afternoon Mr Magpie how's you and your family?" Anymore than 1 it's fine not to say anything. My mum always says a single magpie is bad luck.

I did it yesterday "Hello, Mr Magpie. How are the wife and kids". And salute too.

I say "morning/afternoon/evening, Captain". I don't enquire after her family though, perhaps i should.

Yes I always say it but not while touching anything black. I feel an irrational happiness if I see a pair.

My dad taught me about saluting the magpies. I don't know anything about touching black though. We salute and say "Good morrow Mr. Magpie".

I think it comes from Magpies mating for life so if one is alone, it beggars the question ‘why - what bad luck has befallen his family?!’ Asking after ‘his’ wife and children challenges the ‘bad luck’.

I always salute and ask.

Yup. Morning /afternoon mr magpie, how are you and your family today? And a salute.

Don't have to touch anything though.

I salute and say "Hello magpie, give my regards to your friends and family". (I don't like to assume their sex or assume it's the male doing all the important Gathering Of Stuff )

Yep, "good morning, Mr Magpie, how is your wife?" whenever I see one!

I'm not superstitious at all (as in I'm not suggesting this actually means anything, just an observation!) but I noticed when we arrived at the crematorium for my MIL's funeral there were two magpies on the grass outside. A few days later we went round to help FIL with something and there were two magpies on the grass in his front garden.

Now when I see one I always think of MIL.

I came here to link that song Saucery

I'll just do the lyrics

Chorus (after every other verse):
One for sorrow, two for joy,
Three for a girl and four for a boy.
Five for silver, six for gold,
Seven for a secret never told.
Devil, devil, I defy thee.
Devil, devil, I defy thee.
Devil, devil, I defy thee.

Oh, the magpie brings us tidings
Of news both fair and foul;
She's more cunning than the raven,
More wise than any owl.

For she brings us news of the harvest
Of the barley, wheat, and corn.
And she knows when we'll go to our graves
And how we shall be born.

She brings us joy when from the right,
Grief when from the left.
Of all the news that's in the air
We know to trust her best.

For she sees us at our labour,
And she mocks us at our work.
And she steals the egg from out of the nest,
And she can mob the hawk.

The priest, he says we're wicked
To worship the devil's bird.
Ah, but we respect the old ways
And we disregard his word.

For we know they rest uneasy
As we slumber in the night;
And we'll always leave a little bit of meat
For the bird that's black and white.

I greet them most of the time. At the very minimum, I salute.

Totally normal 😃

I saw “Hello, Mr Magpie” 3 times 🤷🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️

I've heard people say it and it's superstitious nonsense.

Well, of course it is! We don't genuinely think a magpie is going to respond to us asking after his family's health after all.

We salute at magpies and say hello Mr magpie how are you and how's your wife? It's just occurred to me we must regularly say this to female magpies, it must really annoy them!

I always say "Good morning/afternoon Mr Magpie/Mrs Magpie" if I see a magpie.

I have now also started saying "Hello beautiful" whenever I see a red kite. And now I have told you this, you have to start doing it too.

I was taught to salute them and say “Hello Mr Magpie, how’s your wife and children?” To ward off the bad luck of seeing a single magpie.

But it pisses me off that they are bringing me bad luck and I’m being all polite in response, so now I just shout Feck Off!

I like that idea Ortam - I might start doing it in between swearing at magpies.

@3catsandcounting yes! I almost missed a train this morning because I was standing on the footbridge and peering into the trees looking for the second magpie - while the train rolled in beneath me!

I suppose missing the train would have been my bad luck. Nature is twisted.

Always thought the phrase was "Good morning Mr Magpie, where's your partner please?"
To solo magpies only, obvs.
Might say it occasionally if out walking (and maybe under my breath)