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Post by Longhunter1750 on Jan 30, 2023 10:31:44 GMT -5
I've only seen full shiny black crows and ravens. The piebald interest me. I've shot crows on flyway between roost and county dump. Other time snuck into a crow/owl squabble. shot down 3 before the knew something was wrong. One time, backpacking, awoke to a crow/owl fight and snuck on in and just watched. The crows mis-judged, not all the owls were perched near their roost. Two late returning owls went thru the murder of crows and shredded in mid-air, half a dozen crows. The crow and owl fight was my go to call. I would throw out a dozen or so decoys and have one of those full size plastic owls they use in gardens to keep birds out attached to a long telescoping pole leaned against a tree. Start playing a crow and owl fight and let the fun begin, those crows would be so mad you could shoot ten or fifteen before they even realized they were being shot at. |
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Post by tja6435 on Jan 30, 2023 11:46:47 GMT -5
We have crows, magpies and ravens around here, they don’t cause us problems but the golden eagles sure like to pick off our younger/smaller chickens when they’re out free ranging during the summers.
Due to the eagles being protected, we are fencing in the chickens this spring and topping their fenced area with bird netting to keep the chickens in and the dern eagles out.
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Post by kevshell on Jan 30, 2023 15:10:23 GMT -5
I've only seen full shiny black crows and ravens. The piebald interest me. I've shot crows on flyway between roost and county dump. Other time snuck into a crow/owl squabble. shot down 3 before the knew something was wrong. One time, backpacking, awoke to a crow/owl fight and snuck on in and just watched. The crows mis-judged, not all the owls were perched near their roost. Two late returning owls went thru the murder of crows and shredded in mid-air, half a dozen crows. Dead crows make for fantastic decoys. I took a few dead ones and placed them in the multiflora rose with the electronic caller. It brought more in to where I could fold them up with copper plated number fours. |
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JM
.375 Atomic
Posts: 2,454
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Post by JM on Jan 30, 2023 16:25:39 GMT -5
I called the local bird watching supply store & was told it may have been a Leucistic Raven. I looked that up, but the images were more white than the brown bird that I saw.
They don't cause many problems here unless the lid on your trash can is not secure. I was surprised at how quickly they can make a mess.
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pete
.30 Stingray
Posts: 293
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Post by pete on Jan 31, 2023 1:25:14 GMT -5
Crows are very intelligent, they can identify people by face. There was a good article about them in The Backwoodsman magazine, I learned things I didn't know and made sense of their behavior.
Still, I try to shoot one every time I can, it's quite a challenge!
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Post by bradshaw on Jan 31, 2023 14:20:36 GMT -5
Reckon crows have been around longer than we have.
A dairy farmer in town made verboten the shooting of crows on his farm. His reason was country simple: crows peck apart cow pies for the seed and undigested grain, pecking spreads the manure. The farmer raised his two sons in marksmanship and both sons are accomplished woods hunters and field shots. I haven’t shot a crow in forty years. Last shot, a crow at 240 or 250 yards with a Heckler & Koch 91 .308, prone from HK bipod, with Federal 150 SP. The sight, a first or second generation Aimpoint. (1st generation Aimpoint----external adjustments----was more accurate and POI-stable than internal adjusted 2nd generation red dot.) Trajectory of the .308 forced elevation of the electric reticle about two crows above the target crow. Even at its lowest setting, the electric dot would have hidden the crow.
Decided after that, since I don’t eat crow, I don’t need to kill crow. Crows and ravens are nature’s undertakers. A bird knows that many animals, reptiles, and other birds will eat its eggs. This includes numerous species in this part of the North Country: various birds, red squirrel, grey squirrel, pine marten, skunk, fisher cat, mink, ermine (a.k.a. weasel), otter, rodent, cat, canine, raccoon, whitetail deer, and more. According to Ben “Bear Man” Kilham (I just spoke with Kilham), crows focus more on grackle eggs. Grackles themselves are raiders.
David Bradshaw
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Post by 45MAN on Jan 31, 2023 17:53:54 GMT -5
ANY BIRD THAT EATS GRACKLE EGGS IS A FRIEND OF MINE. UNFORTUEATELY CROWS ARE SCARCE THIS FAR SOUTH. MY HOMETOWN IS THE SOUTHERN MOST MAINLAND CITY IN THE USA.
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Post by bushog on Jan 31, 2023 22:58:16 GMT -5
Killing ravens = bad juju……
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Post by Ken O'Neill on Feb 1, 2023 6:54:30 GMT -5
NEVERMORE ....
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pete
.30 Stingray
Posts: 293
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Post by pete on Feb 2, 2023 19:52:31 GMT -5
I didn't know that about crows eating grackle eggs, I guess I'm going to have to give crows a pass from now on. Thanks for posting that.
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Snyd
.375 Atomic
The Last Frontier
Posts: 2,405
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Post by Snyd on Feb 3, 2023 10:33:08 GMT -5
A Murder of Crows....
We have Raven here in AK. They are protected. Something to do with Natve Cultural beliefs.
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Post by bula on Feb 4, 2023 8:33:24 GMT -5
Yup, ravens often found on totem poles.
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Snyd
.375 Atomic
The Last Frontier
Posts: 2,405
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Post by Snyd on Feb 4, 2023 10:21:49 GMT -5
Yup, ravens often found on totem poles. and in dumpsters, back of pickups, garbage cans, etc...... |
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Post by northerngos on Feb 5, 2023 14:57:47 GMT -5
I called the local bird watching supply store & was told it may have been a Leucistic Raven. I looked that up, but the images were more white than the brown bird that I saw. They don't cause many problems here unless the lid on your trash can is not secure. I was surprised at how quickly they can make a mess. Leucism presents itself in a wide variety of ways. I think it’s a blanket term for a lot of different color morphs from piebald to dilute. If you saw a pale brown raven that’s probably what that was. Had a red tail years ago (Falconer) that was dilute leucistic. Had normal red in the tail, and all creamy color was normal. Brown was converted to almost yellow and black was converted to a sepia watermark. I’d imagine a raven with the same mutation would be all that sepia color, including beak legs and talons. Very cool that you saw that. |
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Post by Longhunter1750 on Feb 8, 2023 10:01:57 GMT -5
I didn't know that about crows eating grackle eggs, I guess I'm going to have to give crows a pass from now on. Thanks for posting that. Yes but they will also eat other bird eggs, song birds and such and turkey eggs if given the chance. |
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