Normally we love our local wildlife and the magpie's song is a joy to wake to in the mornings but at the moment I think we are both thinking of a permanent solution to our swooping magpie problem. We had two of our grandsons staying with us recently for the school holidays and this maggie played havoc with them, so much so that we stopped going into our yards for outside play while they were here. Our grandsons have gone home now and the maggie has started targeting Robb, with a vengeance. Robb wears a hat every time he goes outside but that hasn't prevented 'mad maggie' from giving him 6 small cuts on the back of his head. Robb wanted to do a couple of repairs to our car this morning so his solution was to put up our Alex Scott umbrella which seemed to do the job, now every time Robb goes outside without the umbrella I go with him for protection and yell 'f**k off' which strangely seems to work well. I have plans for a few days out in the yards this week so have prepared my hat for the occasion, 'mad maggie' hasn't attacked me yet but I am not taking any chances.