Found Something Icky - Should I Worry?

[+despot&smitten]

Yesterday, after Thanksgiving dinner, the whole clan headed out to celebrate with a little geocaching. Well. Not so much a little. We stayed out caching until way after dark - even when there was little hope of finding anything.

 

I knew better. I really did. But here's how it happened. Slithering under some brush I spied the one and only spot the cache could be hiding inside the bole of a hollow tree in a dense thicket of branches. Gleefully, I stuck my whole hand in the hole, right up to the wrist, crowing with triumph. I suppose its possible the cache was in there. In fact, it probably still is - owing to it being such a good hiding spot. But what I grabbed hold of was a magpie - a very dead, squishy magpie who had somehow managed to expire and get himself wedged in the hollow bole. My whole hand got covered in gooey ex-magpie remains.

 

While the important lesson learned here was "don't be sticking your hand inside things without knowing what's in there first!", I'm still wondering - should I worry about the magpie? Other than west nile virus, are magpies known to spread any other diseases? I tried not to touch anything, and washed up as soon as I could - but still - ewwww!

[+CapnJackSparrow]

I think I would ask a professional. Any open cuts or even broken cuticles on your hand could be very dangerous.

[+AuntieWeasel]

I wouldn't think so. I mean, nothing beyond the usual things you worry about when you get a handful of very spoiled meat. Presumably you washed your hand as soon as you could and said many astringent, clinsing bad words.

 

You have magpies in Canada? Huh. I've only ever seen them in England.

 

Edit: "clinsing"? Yeesh! Where'd that come from?

Edited October 12, 2004 by AuntieWeasel

[+despot&smitten]

You have magpies in Canada? Huh. I've only ever seen them in England.

Oh yah. Tons of 'em. Wake you up in the morning and beak at you for sitting underneath their favourite tree they will. Pretty birds, but they're carrion-eaters. Pesky too. I've been chased by one on my bicycle before. We also have West Nile Virus, coast to coast accross Canada. Took about two years to make it from the east coast all the way out west. Although, at my lattitude, we don't worry about it much after September. Once the frosts come and start knocking down the mosquitoes, we quit worrying about West Nile until spring time. The usual vector of transmission is mosquito bites. The assumption is that absolutely no one is foolish enough to handle dead crows & magpies. Unless of course you're me that is and just happen to be the kind of person who runs out and smears themselves all over with dead corvids.

 

I probably will check with local health authorities - but this particular bird was quite spectactualarly dead. I'm hoping that all his parasites would have jumped ship looking for other hosts long before I got there.

[+1stimestar]

*shudders*

 

Yeck. Sorry.

[+CapnJackSparrow]

This isn't the same thing, but let me relate an infection story:

 

A coworker of mine was serving Alaskan King Crab to his parents for New Year's Day dinner. While preparing the crab legs, he cut his finger on the spines on the outer shell. (A very small cut) Three days later he died of Toxic Shock Syndrome. Since then I have never taken the possibility of infection lightly.

[+despot&smitten]

Local health authority advises that people can't catch west nile directly from birds. They say the virus has to pass through a bird, to a mosiquito, and then to a human to spread west nile in people. Hmmmm... Yet they're still very particular about how you should never, ever handle a dead bird....

 

Thanks for your advice, Capn Jack Sparrow! I scrubbed and disinfected at the earliest opportunity. No cuts or scratches, but I'll definitely keep an eye out for symptoms of infection.

 

Thanks!

[+PNWWizard]

IYou have magpies in Canada? Huh. I've only ever seen them in England.

 

We have lots of magpies in Oregon too!

 

But a handful of decomposing one - ewwwwww!

[+rusty_tlc]

IYou have magpies in Canada? Huh. I've only ever seen them in England.

 

We have lots of magpies in Oregon too!

 

But a handful of decomposing one - ewwwwww!

I carry hand sanitizer and wet napkins in my daypack for just such occasions as you describe.

 

Ubiquitous seems to apply here, loads of magpies in Nevada.

 

Odd thing I noticed about them a few years back. They are mostly solitary in the summer but flock in the winter. I've seen them drive a hawk away from a kill in the winter so my theory is they can get / defend food better as a flock in the winter when food is scarce.

[+Anonymous']

That's pretty gross.

[+PNWWizard]

Ubiquitous seems to apply here, loads of magpies in Nevada.

 

Odd thing I noticed about them a few years back. They are mostly solitary in the summer but flock in the winter. I've seen them drive a hawk away from a kill in the winter so my theory is they can get / defend food better as a flock in the winter when food is scarce.

Huh, I've never seen that - brave birds! I have a goshawk hanging around catching the smaller birds, so my feeder is down for a while, sigh!

[+GPSKitty]

*shudders*

 

Yeck. Sorry.

double, or even triple *shudders*. Icky.

This is why I carry (or try to remember to carry) gardening gloves in my cache bag. Handy for sticking hands into nasty or unseen spots.

[+Anonymous']

*shudders*

 

Yeck.  Sorry.

double, or even triple *shudders*. Icky.

This is why I carry (or try to remember to carry) gardening gloves in my cache bag. Handy for sticking hands into nasty or unseen spots.

Good idea

[Prairie Jeepin]

Just a quick note on Magpies....

 

They were brought over to North America from England (if memory serves) at least a century ago if not more, as a control measure for some other pests that were crop destroying critters. They have since, like all imported things, gotten out of control themselves and have run rampant o'er the lands.

 

They are now considered a nusiance bird, pest, or otherwise unwanted creature themselves. They are a relative to the Bluejay.

 

Just thought I'd throw out that info for those that may have an interest.

 

PJ

Edited October 13, 2004 by Prairie Jeepin

[+CompuCash]

You have magpies in Canada? Huh. I've only ever seen them in England.

Oh yah. Tons of 'em. Wake you up in the morning and beak at you for sitting underneath their favourite tree they will. Pretty birds, but they're carrion-eaters. Pesky too. I've been chased by one on my bicycle before. We also have West Nile Virus, coast to coast accross Canada. Took about two years to make it from the east coast all the way out west. Although, at my lattitude, we don't worry about it much after September. Once the frosts come and start knocking down the mosquitoes, we quit worrying about West Nile until spring time. The usual vector of transmission is mosquito bites. The assumption is that absolutely no one is foolish enough to handle dead crows & magpies. Unless of course you're me that is and just happen to be the kind of person who runs out and smears themselves all over with dead corvids.

 

I probably will check with local health authorities - but this particular bird was quite spectactualarly dead. I'm hoping that all his parasites would have jumped ship looking for other hosts long before I got there.

we have them all over California too !!!

 

Yellow billed Maggies -

[+CompuCash]

*shudders*

 

Yeck.  Sorry.

double, or even triple *shudders*. Icky.

This is why I carry (or try to remember to carry) gardening gloves in my cache bag. Handy for sticking hands into nasty or unseen spots.

Good idea

 

I carry garden gloves as well as rubber gloves - purple nitrile - good for the sharps

[+GPSKitty]

we have them all over California too !!!

 

Yellow billed Maggies -

Here I was thinking that we don't have them around here, but now I'm wondering if they are those black birds with yellow bills. Remind me of crows but smaller.

I just started noticing them a few years ago.

[Prairie Jeepin]

Magpies are black and white and a sort of shiney dark blue/green, the size of a bluejay or large robin. they are scavengers and will eat most anything not nailed down.

 

 

EDIT: to add pic

Edited October 13, 2004 by Prairie Jeepin

[+CompuCash]

Yellow billed maggies are more the size of a crow -

 

http://audubon2.org/webapp/watchlist/viewSpecies.jsp?id=226

Edited October 13, 2004 by CompuCash

[+rusty_tlc]

Magpies are everywhere I see log after log mentioning them.

[+CapnJackSparrow]

Never seen one in NY. Has anyone else?

[+Cap'n Cache & Lt. Geo]

I have two more bits of bad news for you regarding the dead magpie. I did this cache a while back, more than a month ago as a matter of fact. The dead magpie was there at that time, and looking at logs, even a bit before, so it was very, very, very dead by the time you got to it. The other bad news? That's not where the cache is. Look East.

[+PNWWizard]

Nice magpie photo! And I'll add that they love dog kibble!! In large quantities!

[+Robespierre]

Huh, I've never seen that - brave birds! I have a goshawk hanging around catching the smaller birds, so my feeder is down for a while, sigh!

Just another type of bird feeder. Unless, of course, you raise roller pigeons...then they're the scourge of the earth.

[+AuntieWeasel]

Never seen one in NY. Has anyone else?

I'm in Rhode Island, and no. I don't recall ever seeing one in the South, where I grew up, either. That's why I mentioned it further up the thread.

 

You see them all over England, and they're a really striking-looking bird. They're supposed to be a bird of ill omen and the superstition is, if you see one, you have to salute it or bad luck will follow. Whenever Uncle Badger sees one, he says, "afternoon, mister magpie, sir."

 

I'm thinking of buying him one for a pet, just to keep him busy.

 

Heh heh.

[+Search1128]

We have lots of Magpies here in Utah too. They are very pesty birds and annoying as all get out. They hunt in pairs too. When I was younger we lived next to a large field that had several nests of magpies. They would fly over to our yard. One would distract our dog by going to the far side of the yard and get him to chase and the other bird would swoop down and get the dog food out of his bowl. Smart birds but a real pain.

We wanted to get rid of them but we found out that they legally can't be shot in the western US because of some agreement between the US and Mexico in the 1800's as part of the mexican cession (or something like that).

We have a cache here in the salt lake valley that is near a magpie nest. It was one of the fun caches for my kids to do. Fun hike in the middle of the city in a field.

 

Kirk out.

[+Planet]

West Nile is not the only worry.

 

Exotic Newcastle Disease Virus, Bird Flu, Avian Pox, Infectious Bronchitis (yes, for birds), Quail Bronchitis, Lymphoid Leukosis, Marek's Disease (Visceral Leukosis), Infectious Bursal Disease (Gumboro), Erysilpelas, the list goes on and on. this is just one site I googled

 

As long as you washed, and disinfected, and scrubbed, and cleaned, you should be fine, but if you're worried, call your doctor and tell him/her what happened. Then take their advice. Good luck.

 

(Hey, Cap't Cache and Lt. Leo, maybe next time you'll note in your log so no one sticks their hand in a dead bird. )

[+Bill D (wwh)]

AuntieWeasel wrote:

You see them all over England, and they're a really striking-looking bird. They're supposed to be a bird of ill omen and the superstition is, if you see one, you have to salute it or bad luck will follow. Whenever Uncle Badger sees one, he says, "afternoon, mister magpie, sir."

A bird of ill omen if you see just one, but a pair is said to be a good sign.

 

"One for sorrow, two for joy".

 

Greeting them used to be common. The version I've most often heard is, "Good morning, your honour".

[canyonlander]

I keep a pair of thick leather gloves in my fanny pack to be used when retrieving caches from blind spots.

[+Andy and Robin]

Did it taste like chicken?...or spotted owl?

[+despot&smitten]

I have two more bits of bad news for you regarding the dead magpie. I did this cache a while back, more than a month ago as a matter of fact. The dead magpie was there at that time, and looking at logs, even a bit before, so it was very, very, very dead by the time you got to it. The other bad news? That's not where the cache is. Look East.

ROTFLMAO!!! That is too funny Cap'n Cache. I'll be sure to try it again;

-in daylight,

-to the east,

-with gloves,

-with handwipes,

-and hopefully with a brain, this time.

Thanks!

[+Cap'n Cache & Lt. Geo]

(Hey, Cap't Cache and Lt. Leo, maybe next time you'll note in your log so no one sticks their hand in a dead bird.  )

 

It *IS* in my log. And in several other people's logs too. I'm guessing he didn't have the opportunity to read the logs before going to find this one.

[thorin]

A good reason to carry a small bottle of Purell or other anti-bacterial (wipes, etc...) with you. Yuck!

 

Thorin

[+Team GPSaxophone]

West Nile is not the only worry.

West Nile is everywhere this year. I see log after log mentioning it