By Alesha Capone
A cyclist who was swooped by a magpie while riding on the Federation Trail in Werribee last month has captured the moment on camera.
Tess Abbott said that as she cycled along the trail about 8am on September 22, she took out her mobile to film the view.
“I had my phone out filming the path as it was really pretty with the sun and the trees that morning, then a magpie started swooping me,” she said.
“I then thought, ‘I’ll just press record as it’ll probably be funny to show my husband when I got home’.
“I got through the swooping then about 50m down the path it was my turn-around point, so I realised I’d have to go back through it again to get home.”
Ms Abbott said that as she rode back through, still holding her mobile, she felt the magpie “snap” at her ear but did not know if it was the bird’s beak or caws.
“Once I was through, I stopped and saw I had blood on my ear and it was sore but fine,” she said. “I rode home, and when I looked at the video properly, I saw I happened to get it going for my ear so I slowed it down and then saw it captured the actual snap which was pretty cool.
“It also had a great angle of the magpie over my shoulder so I did a screen shot of all those frames as they were brilliant shots.”
Ms Abbott said she was not injured by the magpie, and that the incident had not put her off cycling.
As reported by Star Weekly last week, according to the magpiealert.com website, more than 25 swooping magpie incidents have been reported in Wyndham so far this year.
