Crows

[popper]

Lived in DFW area for more than 40 yrs, I don't ever remember hearing a crow. Lots of grackles and dove, cardinals, etc. Last few mornings all I hear is crows. No dove, no grackles, just crows and some small wren like birds. Talking to a guy at the range, said he probably wouldn't go dove hunting this year as they aren't around anymore. Question, country boys & farmers - we getting a severe weather change or just the drought?

[grumman581]

We have enough grackles down here -- you are welcome to ALL of them.

[canyon-ghost]

We had the grackles out here by Amarillo the last couple of years really bad. The doves aren't bothered by them, those doves are bigger birds that grackles don't mess with. Crows might be different. I wonder what kind of natural enemies might run them off.

I shot grackles until I was blue in the face here.

[dbosman]

Crows might be different. I wonder what kind of natural enemies might run them off.

West Nile virus strikes corvids hard. A couple of years later the population rebounds and the "new" birds expand their range.

[LynC2]

I consider grackles to be a typical Yankee bird -- they come down here in the winter, make a lot of noise, shít all over everything, and then go back north after they've made a mess and can't handle our warm weather.

Funny, LOL!

[LynC2]

Duplicate

[bikerbeans]

Same deal with the crows in NW Ohio. I have seen more this year that I can ever remember, while I am seeing almost no doves. Around here, the W. Nile Virus put a hurt on the crows a few year back and they have apparently rebounded very well. Also, I have noticed they aren't showing the fear of humans that I normally associate with crows. Some of them in my wife's horse pasture are letting me get within 15 to 20 yards of them. I have been wanting to pop a few of them but my neighbor broke her leg and is off work at home during the day. Everytime she hears me shoot she thinks I shot one of her horses! IF the crows are here when she goes back to work I have a little surprise for them.

BB

[LynC2]

Same deal with the crows in NW Ohio. I have seen more this year that I can ever remember, while I am seeing almost no doves. Around here, the W. Nile Virus put a hurt on the crows a few year back and they have apparently rebounded very well. Also, I have noticed they aren't showing the fear of humans that I normally associate with crows. Some of them in my wife's horse pasture are letting me get within 15 to 20 yards of them. I have been wanting to pop a few of them but my neighbor broke her leg and is off work at home during the day. Everytime she hears me shoot she thinks I shot one of her horses! IF the crows are here when she goes back to work I have a little surprise for them.

BB

Get some CB caps for your .22 and she will never know! :grin:

[shooter93]

Crows are migratory but a lot of people don't think so because they see them all Winter. They only go a state or two south so here in Pa the Winter crows are from Northern NY etc. Crows are intelligent. They can reconize faces and teach their young who can spot the same face many years later. Crows can be hard on song birds but not as bad as Cowbirds which have had a huge effect on song bird populations.

[uscra112]

Crows are migratory but a lot of people don't think so because they see them all Winter. They only go a state or two south so here in Pa the Winter crows are from Northern NY etc. Crows are intelligent. They can recognize faces and teach their young who can spot the same face many years later. Crows can be hard on song birds but not as bad as Cowbirds which have had a huge effect on song bird populations.

COWBIRDS! Now there's one that will get my dandruff up. Used to plink 'em off my feeder from the dining room window when I lived in Michigan. Used Colibri, since the range was about 8 feet. Used to get 50 or 60 a summer, and they just kept coming. Males are the horniest birds I ever did see. And perverted. I mean sick perverted. Once I shot a female off the feeder; she fell right-side-up on the ground and immediately two males started a fight to see who could do "that stockyard thang" with her.

[Ed Barrett]

You must have all the Missouri crows. Sure haven't been many around here this year.

[leeggen]

Crows are eatable, just like blackbird and dove. Atleast Dad said they ate them during the hard times.
CD

[Cosmiceyes]

Before you get in to trouble with a tight necked game warden about shooting a endangered species cousin the crow. We have a three country treaty that only lets us hunt crows during a season now.Your only allowed to kill so many a day. It's federal law. So as I learned from a friend in Alaska.If you feel threatened,or the crow looks as if it's going to attack your cat,dog,goldfish you can shoot it anytime. When the sun is out almost 24-7 in Alaska the noisy black fluffs got to gawking at 1 in the am. I stuck the 243 out the window,and just floating feathers. 2 hours later another one on the same telephone pole.Another bang,and black feathers floating down.When I went to town for breakfast later the game warden questioned me in public about the feathered foe. I replied they threatened me. He smiled,and said OK! Someone did call him about it.
By the way the endangered bird is some Raven that hasn't been seen in years from Mexico. :)'s

[LUBEDUDE]

I'd been shooting crows for years here in East TX. Then a buddy of mine told that it was illegal unless the crows were damaging your crops.
Well, I'm no farmer, that's for sure.

Soon after hearing this news I saw a game wardin in the same county in which I was breaking the law. I asked him about shooting crows.
The Game Warden said it was legal to shoot them "if" they were damaging your property.
He further added, that it was his personal belief that when a crow wakes up every morning, all he has on his mind is to destroy your property!!!

Thank God I was killing crows in this Game Warden's jurisdiction!

[Blacksmith]

Get some CB caps for your .22 and she will never know! :grin:

CCI Quiet are even better, 68 Db at the shooters ear, average noise is:

80 Db Noisy office, electric shaver, alarm clock, police whistle

70 Db Average radio, normal street noise

60 Db Conversational speech

50 Db Normal office noise, quiet stream

They are good out to about 50 yards. Here is the data:
http://www.cci-ammunition.com/products/detail.aspx?use=3&loadNo=960

Only problem is finding them, I found a brick for $37. They also are available with a Segmented Bullet but the only gun store I saw them in wanted $15.99 for a box of 50, no thank you.

[TCFAN]

You must have all the Missouri crows. Sure haven't been many around here this year.

ED, all your crows are in Ozark county.They are everywhere around here. Use to hunt them with a call and shotgun but don't anymore since Missouri put a season on them.When I see one in or around the yard they are fair game with a rifle.............Terry

[TCFAN]

Sorry,hit the button twice

[oldred]

Ah, CROWS-my favorite summer pass time! It's a love/hate thing with me and the crows, I hate what they do to my corn but I absolutely LOVE getting revenge! My Contender carbine in 204 Ruger gets a real work out and I honestly believe crows to be some of the smartest critters a fella is likely to encounter when hunting, I use a blind and cammo and go all-out when crow hunting so I keep the population to a minimum around here. Two things I really like about hunting crows is that I can hunt when there's nothing else in season and I don't have to clean the dang things!

[mold maker]

Those country crows like the squirrels have moved to the city. I used to keep a bird feeder where Mama could watch. The darn crows ran off all the song birds. I in turn molested the crows. You can exterminate them with a Daisy BB gun, with head shots, or from the rear, but the feathers deflect BBs from the front. I could get one every time I visited the john. If ya leave the corpse laying, it serves as a warning to the rest.

[km101]

I have seen more crows than usual this spring/summer but I still have the doves and songbirds too. There are two pairs of doves that nest in the trees around the house, and come to the bird feeder daily.

But I seem to see more doves (mourning & ringneck) in town than I do in the country around here. I think they know that they are safe in town and are becoming "urbanized". In talking with a friend, who lives further North of the Metroplex in the country, I heard that there seem to be more than the usual numbers of doves in his area. So the number of birds may depend on location, water, food source as much as other bird population.

[km101]

I'd been shooting crows for years here in East TX. Then a buddy of mine told that it was illegal unless the crows were damaging your crops.


I too grew up hunting crows in E. Texas. In the mid/late 60's we hunted crows on the H.L. Hunt farm north of Tyler. At that time there were over 200 acres of pecan trees on the place, so you can imagine the number of crows! We used to build brush blinds to hunt from because the crows would not come near a vehicle or a person sitting near a tree. That's when we found out that crows can count! We would put three people in a blind and later two of them would leave. We thought this would fool the crows. The crows were not fooled.

A game warden told us that crows can count to five, so we would have to put in six people and later have 5 leave for our strategy to work. We couldn't round up that many people, so we had to rely on calls and owl decoys. There were so many crows in the area, and they damaged the pecan crop so much that the farm manager often had to resort to dynamiting the crows roost trees to cut down on the population.

That was more effective than 3-4 kids with shotguns could ever be! But we had fun and killed lots of crows!

[popper]

I always thought dove was like deer, go into town (or sit on the power lines) when the hunting season starts. Grackle are like pigs, legal to shoot anytime, anyplace. Crow aren't. The flock flew over again this morning but didn't make much noise. Raised on the Ks/Mo border, crows were all over but so was everything else. A friend from rural Ok said the crows would chase others off. Yes, the cowbird is a nest robber. Maybe all the rain up north is driving them here but we don't have much crop or water left. Raven is protected I think. IIRC, grackle is an insect eater, crow is a seed eater. Only time I've seen grackle eat is getting trash in the parking lot. We did have some stupid women who would feed them bread crumbs. Guess it's a normal weather related migration, not an invasion.

[beagle]

We have the normal resident crow population here in KY. They may migrate and a new batch move in but they're here year round. We have more corn this year than I have ever seen and with the rain, it's a bumper crop.

In the last few weeks, the crows have been raiding cornfields on both sides and in front of my place. More than I ever remember.

Nature always provides an increase to take up an abundant food source.

Good mast crop this year, big squirrel population.

Big apple crop this year and the deer are driving me nuts.

Everything in its season I guess./beagle

[GOPHER SLAYER]

Crows are here yearround and doves too. The bird virus kills lots of crows and the health dept used to come and check to make sure it was the virus but the last time my daughter called them about a dead crow in front of her house they told her they don't bother to check them since they know it was the virus. It doesn't seem to affect there population though. I saw saw a crow last year that had caught a grown pigion and was trying to kill it. I would run the crow off but he kept coming back until he was far enough away for the pigion to escape.

[Ehaver]

I may be mistaken, but i think that Crows and Ravens can run off other birds in the area... Either way.. good targets!

[mroliver77]

I blast any crow! There are a pair of Ravens in the woods I leave alone. Be careful shooting birds. Most birds are federally protected. Even most we consider trash.
J

[LUBEDUDE]

A game warden told us that crows can count to five, so we would have to put in six people and later have 5 leave for our strategy to work. We couldn't round up that many people, so we had to rely on calls and owl decoys. There were so many crows in the area, and they damaged the pecan crop so much that the farm manager often had to resort to dynamiting the crows roost trees to cut down on the population.

That was more effective than 3-4 kids with shotguns could ever be! But we had fun and killed lots of crows!

Very interesting KM.

Me and my buddy use decoys and a digital game caller, get all camo'd up- even our guns.

I think our key, is that we do NOT shoot the first crow that comes in. He is the "scout". He goes back for the gang to come to the rescue.

Then the fun begins. :-P

[chsparkman]

I have never been anywhere that crows or ravens were not there also. I've seen them on glaciers in Alaska, the barren deserts of the southwest, the jungles of central America. What the heck?

[blackthorn]

When I was growing up in Manitoba, crows and magpies had a ten cent bounty on them. There was a contest each year to see who could turn in the most pairs of legs and the prize was a new repeater .22. One year I missed out by eight pairs of legs. I really have no idea what our laws are on crows now.

[10x]

Crows go to where they can find food.
They are smart and can adapt to the every changing food sources man offers them in urban and rural areas.
You will not find crows where there is no food for crows.
And yes, crows will compete with and prey on other birds - small birds and eggs in nests are a food source for crows.

I find the 17 HMR excellent to deal with crows at about 125 to 175 yards.

[Swamp Man]

Be careful shooting birds. Most birds are federally protected. Even most we consider trash.
J
What's new? The federal government protects all the worthless trash in our country. Some are masked under the names re-interdution,endangered and other names like civil rights.

[TXGunNut]

Like KM101's friend said we have a nice population of dove; mourning, ringneck and whitewing here N of the Metromess. Whitewing aren't here in great numbers yet but the ringneck is catching on fast, seeing more every year. Ya'll can keep the crows, my neighbors don't need any more excuses to be shooting up the place.

[Swamp Man]

Ya'll can keep the crows, my neighbors don't need any more excuses to be shooting up the place.
LOL My brother has a neighbor like that his land looks like a shotshell hull graveyard.

[km101]

Ok, the crows and ravens come under the "Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918" and according to it are protected, and may not be hunted or killed. Check out the link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Migratory_Bird_Treaty_Act

I've been a criminal all these years and didn't know it. Oh, by the way, if the NSA is monitoring, I was just kidding about shooting all those crows! Didn't happen! And besides the statute of limitations has run out! (I hope!) :bigsmyl2:

[waksupi]

Looking over the barrel at 50 to 100 yards how do you tell the difference from a Blackbird, Crow, Grackle, Raven, etc??

Seriously?

[dragon813gt]

Some of you have some weird hunting laws. And this is from someone who lives in a state where you can't hunt on Sunday. Except for Crows. They are fair game on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays almost all year w/ no limit. And besides coyotes they're the only other animal we're allowed to use electronic calls on. I haven't gone out for then in a few years but it might be time to :)

[joesig]

I can't say I didn't enjoy the quiet when the crow population was low.

Pretty cool video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXQAgzfwuNQ

Re: the crow infidelity:

Female crows will give an alarm cry, and send their mates out to confront the threat – while distracted, they’ll mate with crows from a neighboring territory, then pretend to sit on the nest innocently when their mates return home.

[10x]

Looking over the barrel at 50 to 100 yards how do you tell the difference from a Blackbird, Crow, Grackle, Raven, etc??

The autopsy allows a proper identification....

[WilliamDahl]

Ok, the crows and ravens come under the "Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918" and according to it are protected, and may not be hunted or killed. Check out the link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Migratory_Bird_Treaty_Act

I've been a criminal all these years and didn't know it. Oh, by the way, if the NSA is monitoring, I was just kidding about shooting all those crows! Didn't happen! And besides the statute of limitations has run out! (I hope!) :bigsmyl2:

I figure that if it is on my property, it is trespassing and as such, it is fair game, 2-legged or 4-legged, furred, feathered, scaled, or whatever.

[Ed Barrett]

Looking over the barrel at 50 to 100 yards how do you tell the difference from a Blackbird, Crow, Grackle, Raven, etc??

If you can believe some of the talk you hear in the LGS, some of these shooters can not only tell the breed at 100 yards, but sex them and that's using open sights.

[popper]

I wondered about this - Farmers Almanac predicting COLD winter this time. 80% accurate for long range regional forecasts.

[WilliamDahl]

I wondered about this - Farmers Almanac predicting COLD winter this time. 80% accurate for long range regional forecasts.

I hope so. It would be nice to not have to run my air-conditioner for a couple of days this "winter".

[dagger dog]

We have a season on them here in Hoosierland . Think its around June to August when nothing else is fair game.

If you haven't seen crows mob an owl decoy with an electronic digital caller going ,ya ain't seen nothin' yet !

If you want to know how good your stalking and camouflage ability is, try to out sly a resident murder !

[John Allen]

We have plenty of doves in my front yard but I am pretty sure the wife would kill me if I shot them. The roost in the evergreen right outside our door.

[Cosmiceyes]

If you get caught killing crows,just ask the officer if he is Republican or Democrat.The reply you need feathers to tar an feather a offending opposite party. :)'s

[destrux]

Tons of doves here in eastern PA if you know where to look. We have some thick woods behind my auto shop and every time I walk out back I scare up a few doves. Filthy with rabbits too, despite all the cats the neighbors have that roam around.

Crows though... I barely see any. 15 years ago I used to plink at them with my pellet gun all day long. Now if I see less crows than I do bald eagles (not joking, we have two bald eagle nests within a half mile of the family farm... the game warden posted part of our land "no hunting" because of it and warned us not to shoot toward the nest).

[WilliamDahl]

I'm pretty sure we could probably feed all the homeless if we just started shooting all the pigeons (feathered rats) in the cities.

[popper]

pigeons used to be the food crop in the states until they were hunted nearly to extinction. The yanks imported European dove for targets.

[unclogum bill]

When a youngster I use to summer in Alabama at my Grandads farm. Raised Pigs, Chickens and cattle, grew a lot of corn. Darn crows a plenty, with this exception. If you had a gun they kept their distance. It was like magic, you could hide the gun in the tractor and they always knew you had it. Didn't have it and they would hitch a ride with you. Them birds were smarter than I was , but I was working for nothing and loving it so I couldn't have been to bright. I respect crows but they can be mean. That "peck your eyes out " expression fit them well. Believe they kill for the fun of it.

[10x]

pigeons used to be the food crop in the states until they were hunted nearly to extinction. The yanks imported European dove for targets.

You are possibly referring to the Passenger Pigeon. It was habitat loss that decimated the populations, commercial market hunters wiped them out.
Keep in mind that these birds were not so much shot as captured with nets. When the flock numbers reached a lower critical level there were not enough breeding birds left to replace those dying from hunting and predators. Without hunting the pigeons would likely have become extinct anyway as the habitat needed to sustain a large flock simply was not available.

[Hardcast416taylor]

As I recall, it was some years back that the crow was put on the endangered species list and was only allowed to be hunted like a gamebird with a limited season and bag limit. How this came about, again as I recall, was a sub species of crow that only lives in the Hawaiian Islands was getting near extinction. So the Gov`t in all its vast understanding of wildlife thought all crows were going the way of the Dodo bird and enacted the seasonal shooting of them. This was the way it was explained to me by a Mich. DNR field office boss.Robert

[chsparkman]

If you had a gun they kept their distance. It was like magic, you could hide the gun in the tractor and they always knew you had it. Didn't have it and they would hitch a ride with you.

I have always experienced the same thing! Those buggers are smart!

[josper]

uote Originally Posted by grumman581 View Post

I consider grackles to be a typical Yankee bird -- they come down here in the winter, make a lot of noise,all over everything, and then go back north after they've made a mess and can't handle our warm weather. Funny I thought that was Gen Sherman that did that!

[Dale in Louisiana]

From my beloved son:

Son: Dad, did you know that the only difference between crows and ravens is that ravens have five flight feathers and crows have four?

Dad: Did you know that I survived sixty-three years on this planet without that tidbit of knowledge?

Son: Seriously, Dad! The difference between them is a matter of a pinion.

dale in Louisiana

[grumman581]

Funny I thought that was Gen Sherman that did that!

Well, Sherman was a Yankee, so he was just doing what comes naturally.

It seems that my original post upset the delicate sensibilities of some of those Yankees and they caused it to be deleted. That just breaks my ever lovin' Southern heart... :)

[Echo]

From my beloved son:

Son: Dad, did you know that the only difference between crows and ravens is that ravens have five flight feathers and crows have four?

Dad: Did you know that I survived sixty-three years on this planet without that tidbit of knowledge?

Son: Seriously, Dad! The difference between them is a matter of a pinion.

dale in Louisiana

Shame on you! That is AWFUL!

(I've heard the difference between a crow and a raven is that a raven's beak is black, while a crow's beak is yellow.)

[Ledslnger]

I was told by an old guy that the only way to hunt crows and get a bunch was to use corn whiskey. He said get a couple of pans of grain and dump some cheap corn whiskey on it. I guess once the crows get a buzz going you can shoot them one at a time and they won't fly off. He swore to me that this had worked for him countless times. I haven't tried it, but who knows. :)

[David2011]

Too bad I live in a state where ALL birds are protected. WHAT WERE THEY THINKING in Santa Fe? They must no know what a grackle is!

David

[blackthorn]

I don't know about where you all live but around here Ravens are pretty much twice the size of Crows!

[josper]

I don't know about where you all live but around here Ravens are pretty much twice the size of Crows! I was thinking the same thing.

[popper]

Yea, the mockingbird is protected here. Wish I could send them all to Austin, along with fire ants. Franklin had it right, turkey should have been the capitol bird. Condor should be Pelosi's bird - they look the same. Not all crows have the yellow beak but it is shorter. Yes, crows have no thumb.

[bangerjim]

SPEAKING OF CROWS.......................

Researchers for the Maine Turnpike Authority found over 200 dead crows near
Bangor, Maine recently, and there was concern that they may have died from
Avian Flu. They had a Bird Pathologist examine the remains of all the crows, and
to everyone's relief, he confirmed the problem was definitely NOT Avian Flu.

However, he determined that 98% of the crows had been killed by impact with
trucks, and only 2% were killed by an impact with a car. Maine then hired an
Ornithological Behaviorist to determine the cause of the disproportionate
percentages for truck kills versus car kills.

The Ornithological Behaviorist determined the cause in short order:

When crows eat road kill, they always have a look-out crow in a nearby tree, to
warn of impending danger.

His conclusion was that, while all the lookout crows could say “Caw”, none
could say “Truck”.

[dagger dog]

His conclusion was that, while all the lookout crows could say “Caw”, none
could say “Truck”.[/QUOTE]

BadaBoom!

[cdet69]

What a way to put a smile on my face.

[jsizemore]

If you wound the first crow, the others will come to help.

[10x]

If you wound the first crow, the others will come to help.

That is the theory of the owl decoy and the wounded crow call. Crows will go ballistic on a owl decoy...

[BBQJOE]

We've got some monster sized crows out here.
One day, I had my pickup loaded with bags of household trash that I was getting ready to take to my dump.
I was inside at the time, and heard a crow making a hell of a racket. I went outside to see about a dozen crows opening the bags and spreading garbage everywhere, while in the meantime, Mr crow in charge, was perched, and calling the rest of the gang in.
I ran out, and shoo'd them all away.
I rebagged all the trash, and put it back into the truck bed.

I then got an important call, and went inside to get it. 15 minutes later, the crows were back, and had already began to spread the garbage around, with mr. head crow squaking away.

I grabbed my wife's .22 rifle, and put an end to the ring leaders antics.
I bagged him up, and I swear he weighed as much as any of my biggest chickens.
So since he liked my garbage so much, I figured he could join it at the dump.

A day or two later the crows were opening bags in the dump, and found their boss.
Boy were they pissed!
They held a vigil that probably lasted close to a week. They just flew in circles over the dump screaming. Instead of their normal caw, caw, it sounded like they were yelling aw fark! Aw fark! (not fark)
It was really quite the scene, and noisy. I probably won't do that again.

[USAFrox]

SPEAKING OF CROWS.......................

Researchers for the Maine Turnpike Authority found over 200 dead crows near
Bangor, Maine recently, and there was concern that they may have died from
Avian Flu. They had a Bird Pathologist examine the remains of all the crows, and
to everyone's relief, he confirmed the problem was definitely NOT Avian Flu.

However, he determined that 98% of the crows had been killed by impact with
trucks, and only 2% were killed by an impact with a car. Maine then hired an
Ornithological Behaviorist to determine the cause of the disproportionate
percentages for truck kills versus car kills.

The Ornithological Behaviorist determined the cause in short order:

When crows eat road kill, they always have a look-out crow in a nearby tree, to
warn of impending danger.

His conclusion was that, while all the lookout crows could say “Caw”, none
could say “Truck”.

Man, that made me laugh, and I had to share that with friends. That... is ... awesome. Thanks!