I started first thing in the morning down by the lake. Yes Jon I know it is shocking that I make it up before dawn, but even a blind hog will find a nut .
I was able to get the fellows out before the birds started flying.
Once I got the guys out, I could here the birds coming off of the roost. I made it a point to work the hand calls as hard as I could to get them to come in without using the fighting call. Ya, that did not work. AT ALL. After 30 minutes of talking to a few birds we decided that or they decided that my calling sucks and they were not going to come and play with me. So a fighting we would go and one came in. One. Yep one.
Did I mention that one came in. I put the red bead on his coconut and dropped him like a bad habit. I will say that it was one of my better shots. I had got frustrated, so I put Pete on the pole. Just to see how the pole thing was going to work.
Just as soon as I hit the caller two flew by and I missed. Skip the fact that I never heard them and they buzzed Pete. I was able to get a glimpse of some Black Rain but only a couple of feathers. So this stand was over with on to the next. Time to pack it up.
Stand two was on the other side of the lake.
I figured that I would be doing some walking so I packed lite. Just the caller, gun and plenty of ammo. Just as I got out of the truck I could here a crow on the bridge.So I made my way to the shore line and put the caller out. Well lets just say it did not work out for him to good. He came by me at about 10' then he crashed into the shore. It was cool.
After smoking this one, I could hear more crows down the way, so off I went. I cross over some puddles to make it to this field.
I made it to the pine tree on the point to where I turned the caller on. OH CRAP !!!!! I figured that may be one or two would roll in. WRONG !!! It was one of those unreal OS moment. The birds came in. I was able to knock down my first double. Would have got my first triple, but the third bird I hit, it just knocked the dust off of him. I was able to hang out here for another three rounds but the birds were flying higher and I kept just knocking off the dust. Which sucked but was pretty cool to see. So out of this stand to go make anther one.
Stand three was a little different. I make it down to a dry section of the lake where the willow trees are.
It was thick and tight. For some reason the birds were fired up and the hawks were to. I had a Redtail land right above my head. He was about 12' from me. I tried getting a picture but he saw me move and flew off before I could get a pic. The crows would not comment to a low approach for me to get a shot. So I kept picking the caller up and moving around so that it would act like the fight was ongoing and not just stuck in one spot. It worked pretty good. I was able to prune alot of those limbs that got in my way and remove a hole bunch of tail feathers from some birds. I had one bird drop down inside of the treeline. He make it about 5' from me when I seen him. I am said to say there was not enough of the bird left to get a picture of. It kind of reminded me of Bob and his pic with the see through bird. Well ran this hole out time for one more.
I made the next and last stand of the day in this hole.
It turned out pretty good as far as numbers called but not for numbers knocked down. The birds flew to high.
I ended up with just knocking of the dust and chasing feathers.
At this point I don't know. The birds are flocking up in numbers that I have not seen before, take note that I have only been Crow hunting for about 4 seasons now, so it is what it is. But the numbers of birds this year compared to past is doubled. Most of the time I find a spot, listen for a call, get out of the truck, make a run for it, set up, turn the caller on, take the safety off, and get ready to shoot.
Now I do know that across the lake is a small cattle farm that normally hold a few crows, but nothing like I have seen here lately.
Take this morning. I stopped by the church to pay for daycare, when on the way up the road there were 15 birds flying right up the road. Once I pasted them I watched them come straight to the church to met up with the other 30 birds that were already sitting on the churches roof. I guess they had to thank the good lord that Bob does not live in NC nor does Skip hunt this area. They know that I am no threat to them. Well not yet at least.
All I can say that for right now is that large pines are holding large numbers.
Seeing flocks of 30-50 here in nwpa in cornfields and some late hay cuttings have yet to see or hear of any major flocks from up north yet. All the guys I work with give me a crow report when large flocks are spotted [75 birds +] we travel all over the back roads some times 200 miles a day so if there is a big flock in a area I usually hear bout em. Doesent mean I get to hunt em all but o well got to leave some for seed.
__________________
If you are gonna be dumb you gotta be tough
You can't fix stupid!
O yeah I kant spel eether
