Feeding the magpies

About 7 months ago I built a flash bird feeder and trained the magpies to come at 7-30 - 8-00am every day with dog roll etc on offer. They would wait in the trees about 100 metres away and wait for my whistle when 3-4-5 would come swooping down for their morning tucker. This was a great party trick and used to impress our occasional guests. However the last week they have shown very little interest and almost stopped coming although they are still around.

Nothing has changed, is it the time of year or what

Rod, apart from the fact that you are going to get answers along the lines of "go out and shoot them", I tend to think they come and go.

I have four here and as they started as a pair I'm thinking that it is parents and youngsters. They will spend several weeks knocking on the ranch sliders, sitting on the ute, sitting outside the upstairs ranch sliders and peeking at me in the office and inbetween times, sitting in the gums and singing. Then they disappear for some considerable time before showing up at the house again and during that time I will often see them on other parts of the farm. During the winter months I hardly see them at all.

I don't feed mine but this has been going on for several years now and I think you will find that they will turn up again. I like them and their cheekiness

Cheers,
Ronnie