I used to volunteer in Lower Moss Wood a few years ago, once we raised a nest of Jays. One day whilst they had fledged, they as usual were hanging around the Badger pens. l was cleaning out the Badgers and foolishly had left the small bunch of keys just near the gate.
One young Jay flew down, nicked the keys and flew up on the next pen with them. The thought of Ray going berserk at my neglect of such a precious item ( the pens were locked ) caused me to jump up and down, yelling and waving at the bird who got a shock and dropped them....
phew....

Lesson well learnt, keys ALWAYS went in my pocket after that

Dave,

Thanks for your thoughts on this one. It seems to confirm that I was fortunate that the missing key ended up caught up in a picnic chair rather than on the grass nearby.

Lawson

Last year a pair of magpies built a nest in the large Birch tree at the back of my garden. I cut up some Silver foil into various shapes and left them scattered around my garden. Over the next couple of hours both birds took all the pieces to their nest.

Apologies if you read a similar query to this one from me on another birding site, but I'm hoping for speedy reassurance (or confirmation of my fears) on this one.

Is it just an urban myth, as I hope, that if a magpie sees something shiny on the ground (such as a key) it is likely to investigate & probably fly off with said item?

Thanks for any thoughts.