I took down a spruce in a bad shape last week. The HO told me that the magpies were very active around it and she was worried about some babies. It was the very top, maybe only two feet over the nest, so I can't look in it at all before cutting. The (small) dead top took a fly to the ground. In the nest a little demolished, but not too bad, I found 2 babies magpie. After some slight reshaping, I lifted the top with the nest and hung it in an old rosebush arch. HO was very pleased to try to save them, but it was only about 6 feet hight so I had very little hope with the surrounding cats. Indeed, the next day, I found the top and the nest tilted and nobody inside.
A month ago, a customer asked me to cut down two nests of magpies near his house. He couldn't stand anymore the mess on the ground under the nests and overall their nerve breaking calls beginning every days at 5 a.m. Luckily, nobody in the nests yet, but what is funny is the different concerns from one people to an other.