Not the greatest picture, but you can see the dead crow about 60 feet in top of a tree in my back yard. I shot this crow 6 days ago with my Beeman .17 cal. air rifle. It hung there till today...high winds sent him on his way... and wife and I were relieved.
Within 5 minutes of shooting this bird, he was swarmed by his buddies.. probably 15-20 of them. I think most of us crow hunters have seen such an event...upset, screaming, cawing.. crows circling, diving, etc.. their dead comrade. It was about 4 pm. They continued for at least 45 minutes..longer than I would have expected. I managed to "pellet" one more of them...but it hardly drove them off.
At first light the next day, the raucous chatter returned.. and on and off ALL day it continued. Personally, I was amazed and intrigued by this. I had no idea their attempt to conjure their buddy back to life..would last 24 hours. Well, it lasted 5 days! The birds arrived each morning...hollering.. waking us up..and all day from 2 or 3 birds to 15 circled this tree top.. some landing briefly...all agitated for 5 days. I would have never guessed this.. amazing birds to be sure. But lying on the ground, they paid no attention. We slept in on the 6th day. We had graduated from an advanced course in Crow Behavior.
Skip
-- Edited by Skip on Friday 2nd of March 2012 08:52:59 PM
Skip, your quite right. The sight of a dead crow dangling from tree branches drives crow nuts. Often used this technique to snipe crows with my varmint rifles as they tire of circling and land in upper branches presenting a fine rifle shot. Shots often didn't scare them off for long as many would return and continue. Further to the crows paying no attention to the deceased crow once on the ground. I feel the silhouette to be the trigger as a bird on the ground presents little. Also, crow will notice one of their dead brethren on the ground more readily if it is on a light background such as a snow bank.
Ted
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Life's tough... It's even tougher if you're stupid. John Wayne
That is great info. I am planning to make some recordings of crows this spring and summer and that is the kind of info I have been searching for!!! I have some places in mind where I can mic up and force them to the mics, I was even thinking of using a dead bird as a decoy. Now I know to start with the dead crow in the tree.
How close to the dead crow would they get? I have an isolated fence row at our farm that has a good stand of 30' trees that I could be used to draw them in. I was thinking of hanging mics in the trees and capturing their approach and congratulating sounds. I think this will be a great location as no one around there ever messes with the crows. We shot them one time the first of the year killing 46. A week or so later we observed over 100 in a pine thicket raising cane over something.
I have been trying to figure out how to initiate the mobbing. This sounds like it will work. What are your thoughts?
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"If money can fix it, it ain't broke" The great theologian and my crow hunting partner AW.
Opps...I forgot to post the picture!! Check out the "hanging crow"! I am quite familiar with crow behavior over dead crows... it does vary in intensity depending on situation.. but 5 days of intense hollering set a record for me. 8F my guess is... IF you can get a dead crow up in a tree in an area frequented by crows, you will be in business to record sounds. The live birds circled within a few feet of the dead bird.. often landing beside him.. several at one time..etc.. Tell you what else this did.. it gave me quite a few hours... of listening to the sounds crows in distress make...not the CD or taped sounds..but the real deal. Sure re-inforced the sounds I try to make with my calls..
As far as trying to mimic mobbing sounds.. I am not sure that is required to be an effective caller. My suggestion is..... use two or three callers.. at the same time...2-3 of your buddies working their calls. We do that.. have for years. May not be "mobbing" but it is close enough. Multiple calling sounds from slightly different locations ( crows notice this ) within your "stand" is powerful medicine.
Not the greatest picture, but you can see the dead crow about 60 feet in top of a tree in my back yard. I shot this crow 6 days ago with my Beeman .17 cal. air rifle. It hung there till today...high winds sent him on his way... and wife and I were relieved.