So the Australian magpie is a bigger meaner viscious version of the UK one (which I am enamoured to via childhood related nostalgia). I mentioned when I first arrived that it was swooping season. During spring the male magpies become very territiorial and have a tendancy to swoop on the helmets of cyclists which they see as a threat. Some people tie cable-ties to the top of their helmets in the belief that the magpies only attack the top-most part of the cyclist. Though a lot of people doubt that actually works. There are even stories that some of the more vicious magpies have been known to stick their beaks inside people's ears when attacking. Not all male magpies do this and its been interesting to find out just where the vicious ones are, there is one on the eastern side of campus I know of, for example.
(Photo from lonebiker.dk)
I was cycling back from a sailing course on Lake Burley Griffin on Sunday and got swooped twice in one trip. The first was scraping round on the top of my helmet before I even noticed, the second was much more noisy and just flapped around a bit. The trick is to just keep on cycling and get out of their territory as quickly as possible, though this was trickier when I was at traffic lights for the second swoop! I would say it was good I was wearing my helmet but there's the possibility its actually the helmets themselves which the magpies find threatening.
Anyway, since this double swoop on Sunday, I've kind of become ever so slightly scared of birds, flinching when I see a shadow of one flying low nearby and the like!!
Ahhh, the swooping magpies. Forgot about them. We used to put a pair of sunglasses on the back of our head as they don't attack you if they think you are looking at them. Or perhaps you could find a very tall friend to sit on the back of your bike and take the hit.
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