Further Experiences With Magpies In the Croydon Area.

In my Blog about “The Magpie tree” I told you of discovering a few magpies who had begun to gravitate around our back yard. Then one or two of them began to come closer and closer to the backdoor including a couple of smaller ones, of whom my wife started to feed with bread and Meat scraps and even porridge and pretty soon word must have passed around because we have at times counted up to 20 Maggies there. (& a couple of Indian Minors and even a Crow, along with a jay, and a couple of Doves – strange combination that!)
Sadly the smaller Magpies started to get bossed about by the bigger ones and one big one in particular. Also now, one cannot even go out into the backyard with out attracting a hovering crowd of flying black and white feathers. That or else having them perching on the roof and fence, looking menacingly at you, hoping you have something for them, even when you haven’t.
This too is a common occurrence in the human world too isn’t it? One starts to help out the real needy and soon the program is swamped by many others, often nowhere as needy, who begin to take over the whole program.
So what do you do? Do you give up on all completely? Do you try and restrict the bossy, greedy ones? Do you try and provide a safer alternative for the needy ones, like my wife tries to do by throwing some basic food for the greedy ones far away, while feeding the more needy ones up close with better quality food?
Yes, what do you do? Give up completely? Or try some alternatives? Your thoughts please?