Dhalia Robertson, who moved to Korumburra from South Australia with her husband and three-year-old son Logan in May, reckons the magpies are more aggressive in Gippsland.
“In South Australia, we don't get swoopy ones,” she told the Monitor.
Robertson has been taking Logan to check out playgrounds in the area. A neighbour advised her to avoid Coleman Park in Korumburra.
“We went there thinking, ‘Oh, there's other families here, it'll probably be fine’. We were wrong. We were the ones to get swooped.”
On social media some people refer to a particularly aggressive maggie at Coleman Park as Sir Swoopalot. In spring, the magpies win, and many residents choose to stay away.
Why so swoopy? As the weather warms, magpies enter mating season. To protect their eggs, nests and newly hatched babies, male magpies will dive at anything they perceive as a threat.
Unfortunately for the Robertsons, three-year-old Logan was perceived as a threat by Sir Swoopalot.
“He's still really scared now,” Robertson said. “Every time we go outside, if he can hear or see any kind of bird, he's grabbing onto us and asking us to pick him up or squeezing our hands even tighter.”
Robertson said in her experience, South Australian magpies don’t attack anything larger than a cat.
For now, the Robertsons will leave Coleman Park, Sir Swoopalot and the other protective magpies to do their spring thing.
“It'll just be our winter park, once all of the birdies calm down and the babies are grown up.”