We don`t have this Maggie bird here, but we do have Red Shouldered Hawks. Sometimes they will actually try and catch smaller helicopters...500 size and down. We also have a bird called a Tree Swallow. They are small, delicate birds who fly low to the ground at dusk...searching for insects. Every once in a while, they will fly up toward your helicopter. A couple of years ago, I was practicing rainbows after work, and one of them decided it would be fun to fly through the disc of my TSA 600N. Didn`t work out so well for the little guy though. He perished, and I cried for a week because I did him in.

 

Oddly enough, those Zeal blades do look a bit like they drew blood.

 

As with many things in Australia, we tend to have extreme animals.. here is a magpie swooping deterrent test to give you some idea of their tenacity of these birds and why people can end up crashing (and historically have many times). Enjoy!

 

Lmao!

 

Hahaha that's why we feed nathan the maggie he loves chips and meat pies lol

 

OMG!!! That bird was serious. Why do they do that? Is it a territorial thing, or are they just mean?

 

I don`t know about that batch of blades, but this is the helicopter and the blades that did the deed.

 

As with our spiders, snakes, sharks and jellyfish/octopus we usually have the extremely dangerous versions of animals...

Not all magpies are this bad, infact they make fantastic pets if you get to know them. They are very territorial and during spring they will attack anyone who approaches within short distance from their nest. But they will peck you - I have never seen anyone being seriously injured (only peck holes) but they will scare the bejessus out of you if you are not prepared.

Interestingly at our heliclub we used to have an aggressive magpie. He somehow moved on about 2 years ago and his sibling (affectionately known as nathan) now sits with us and eats... very friendly, which is unusual. He is not scared of the helis either and will sit and watch smak all day. Everyone likes Nathnan. Not too many people liked his parents however - they downed at least 5 helicopters by scaring the pilots. And I am sure they downed many more. I got used to the swoops. You just have to hold your nerve and realize its only a bird....

 

You can keep the spiders. I would rather swim with the Great Whites and Blue Ringed Octopus than to get within eyesight of the smallest spider....Yep, I`m that scared of them. LOL. As far as the Magpies go....Has anyone ever considered putting Bony Fingers on a pole like a scarecrow...(In this case, a "Crashcrow")...to see if that would ward off the attacks?

Nathan sounds like an an awesome guy though. I would share my lunch with him.

 

LOL I am sure @Crash Heligod would not approve!.. And as for spiders, during the summer its not uncommon to have huntsman wondering around your house. They are the size of the palm of your hand (easily, some bigger) and can run very fast and jump quite far. Quite often you will see them line up an insect from about 30cms away and jump, grab its victim with is long large hairy legs and quickly sink its large fangs into the insect ensuring it dies within seconds. But luckily their venom is not too dangerous - ie it wont kill you. I have been bitten by one... I did not get sick but it did hurt.

 

I know Huntsman spiders all too well. We have them here too. Aaron and I were standing in our bed room, talking one night when he started looking past me while he was listening to me. I turn around and see a HUGE huntsman on the wall....RIGHT above our bed. Aaron tried to get it, but it ran down behind the headboard. I said...."That`s all for me, I`m sleeping in my truck tonight". After about 20 minutes, we went back to the bedroom, and opened the door. There was the spider back out on the wall above the bed. Aaron tried again.....but the spider went behind the headboard again. The third time we went in there, I said to Aaron..."move! (as I was drawing my .45 auto from it`s holster) I`ll get him myself". Aaron wouldn`t let me do it, but he did get the spider that time.

 

Bah ha ha .... thats so funny... One way to get overy your arachniphobia is to keep one as a pet. IE we had a large container - the size of a small fish tank - and we caught a huntsman and called her mrs smith. We would occasionally throw in flies and watch her hunt them down. We had her for 3.5 years and she knew when we were about to throw in a fly and would hide down the bottom of the tank. So easy to look after and spiders as well have a personality. you can have fiesty ones, shy ones. Its quite amazing - but i cant kill huntsmans any more, i have a soft spot for them now.

 

Here ya go:
From what I understand of the wildlife in Australia, it must be like "Darwin's Deathtrap" down there!

 

I`m really only scared of two types of spiders....dead ones, and live ones. There is nothing cute, cuddly, or charming about them that I can see. I can`t even walk by the spider display at pet shops, because my skin starts to crawl, and I feel a panic attack coming on if I do. It`s kinda funny though, that I have such a fear of them... yet I live in Florida. Where we have somewhere around 2000 species of spiders.