While out fishing I saw...

A cuckoo sat on top of a telegraph pole!

I heard a warning cry and looked up to see it was in fact a cuckoo being mobbed by a swooping Magpie. The Magpie then quickly flew off followed by the cuckoo - in opposite directions to one another.

I wonder if a cuckoo would ever have the audacity to lay its eggs in a Magpies nest?

Magpies are the hooligan element of the family, always looking for trouble

I rather like magpies, corvids are an interesting family.
Can’t remember the last time I even heard let alone saw a cuckoo

laguna said:

A cuckoo sat on top of a telegraph pole!

I heard a warning cry and looked up to see it was in fact a cuckoo being mobbed by a swooping Magpie. The Magpie then quickly flew off followed by the cuckoo - in opposite directions to one another.

I wonder if a cuckoo would ever have the audacity to lay its eggs in a Magpies nest?

Click to expand...

I would think it very unlikely. Cuckoo's tend to pick birds smaller than themselves so that their chick can bully the other chicks out. I should think a cuckoo chick wouldn't stand a chance in a nest full of magpie chicks.....

Cuckoo's are said to mimic a sparrrowhawk, which frightens off small birds and gives them chance to lay their egg in the small birds nest. The down side of this is they can get mobbed by crows and magpies, which may account for what you saw.