Crow Busters Forum

rookie_crow_hunter · Veteran Member

found something ive never seen before

Buckshot1822 · Senior Member

I'd like to know where that is biggrin

Zeddicus · Senior Member

Hit them hard and smart!

jonthepain · Guru

sounds like a plan - looking forward to hearing about it.

bring a camera!

Mark · Guru

pictures and full report please........

NGillespie10 · Senior Member

definitely should be a good shoot! Get there EARLY so you don't scare them off.

rookie_crow_hunter · Veteran Member

27 pigeons in an hour and a half

M12Shooter · Guru

Nice job Rookie, pigeons are fun. They fly much diferently than crows, flock action remind me more of ducks in flight. Crows pulled a no-show?

Ted

JustinNH · Veteran Member

Nice shootin!

Pat B · Senior Member

Did you have a decoy setup? Or just ambushed them on a flyway?

Pat

Skip · Guru

Under the category of " never seen before" I have a situation that happened Wed of this week, that I had never remotely seen before involving crows.

Wednesday was our first cool day in months. I used the occasion to slip out at 0800 to both visit the farmers who let me shoot their crows and pigeons.. do a little PR with them, etc.. as my crow season in earnest is a few weeks away AND to possibly make a stand or two...get the rust off the ole fire control system..etc. My old bones need such.

First stand was wonderful. No bag limit records, just seeing 11 crows fall against a very clear blue North Carolina sky was a treat for these eyes. They responded with full confidence...were neutralized with a big smile.... my smile that is.

Second stand.. and last.. found me at the "pecan lady's" home site of a massive killing ( for me solo ) 3 years ago when she had an infestation of crows eating her pecans... trees that her father had planted in the late 2800's. Even since then, I try to make a couple of stops there each year to visit her.. and evaluate the pecan crop.. i.e.crow crop at the same time. About 150 yards behind her home is a very old shed.. about 12x25 feet with a sloping tin roof. I starting "phoning" the crows standing on the edge of the tree line about 15 from the shed and 2 quickly appeared overhead and were drilled. A 3rd showed up in a couple minutes, was shot.. and he fell on the tin roof with a "thump". I continued calling for another 5-8 minutes and two more came in one at the time..and were cancelled.

Another 10 minutes of calling produced not one single additional crow or crow sound that I could hear. I moved out of position to pick up the dead to toss them into the woods..and when I moved around the corner of the building I saw... about 15 feet from me.. real close..a Red Tailed Hawk eating on the crow that had hit the roof. The bird as on the ground..had evidently slid off due to the steep angle. The hawk saw me... flew only about 20 feet away.. landed and just stared at me until I moved to examine the crow. He seems totally unconcerned over my presence. I examined the crow.. the hawk had been in fact gnawing the bird..all the while I was shooting not 25 yards from it. Amazing. Hard to beat Mother Nature.

Skip

8fishermen · Guru

Cool story Skip!

Puppypopper · Senior Member

Ya'll have this all wrong. We don't need pictures or anther story to read about.

WHAT WE NEED IS A ROAD TRIP !!!!!!!

Who's up for next Saturday ? I have to work this weekend, sorry .

motiondecoy · Guru

Different hawks will visit a set up and even wach when they hear shooting. One red tail sat off a long ways away-seemed like a quarter mile away but when a crow was popped-in it came and grabbed it and barely clearing the field flew to the edge of the woods and got just inside the tree line when it was mobbed by a flock of chickadees! (years ago before "civilization" yet again swallowed up that farm forever)

Old Artilleryman · Guru

Interesting hawk story. Similarly, I had one, then two, then three turkey buzzards circle around one of my set-ups following my initial shots. They presence seemed to cause the crows to stay away, as there was no more nearby crow activity.

Without hijacking your thread, Question: Do turkey buzzards keep crows away (like hawks), or is it more likely the crows took off after my first shots.

Bob · Guru

Old Artill,

Here is a photo of some buzzards sitting in a tree 100 yards from the blind with crows coming in. Didn't effect my shooting one iota.

Bob A.

BUZZ · Senior Member

Last year I had a Redtail swoop in and try to grab a downed Crow. It literaly came in 10 yards off my left shoulder, from behind. It actualy missed the Crow, but sure got my attention!!

I have found that Turkey Buzzards, Redtails etc....do keep Crows from flying low on my setups. That is if the predators are flying, if they are off in distance, or tree'd, I see no effect.

Buckshot1822 · Senior Member

BUZZ wrote:
Last year I had a Redtail swoop in and try to grab a downed Crow. It literaly came in 10 yards off my left shoulder, from behind. It actualy missed the Crow, but sure got my attention!!
I have found that Turkey Buzzards, Redtails etc....do keep Crows from flying low on my setups. That is if the predators are flying, if they are off in distance, or tree'd, I see no effect.

We had a big Red Tail pick up a crow we had just shot last year.......it was during a contest, and my buddy started running towards it, and it ended up dropping the crow 4 or 5 off of the ground.....

motiondecoy · Guru

While setting up a hunting buddy asked:"Doc rows get along with turkey vultures?" just then a turkey vulture came by about tree top level with about 350 crows on its' bacon and i thought;"Oh what the hell-I'll try for one". I nailed it( a crow-turkey vultures are not legal game up here) but crows will attack turkey vultures at certain times of the year such as nestings season.

note: they eat each others' eggs if they can do it.

note; I see red tailed hawks trying to grab a turkey vulture usually in the fall. it looks like a"game" but I guarantee you that hawk is serious! A couple years ago i watched as a red tailed hawk came awfully close to nailing a turkey vulture. That turkey vulture desperately barber poled the top quarter of a silo but managed to get away from the red tail who eventually gave up.

nhcrowshooter · Guru

Skip wrote:
Under the category of " never seen before" I have a situation that happened Wed of this week, that I had never remotely seen before involving crows.
Wednesday was our first cool day in months. I used the occasion to slip out at 0800 to both visit the farmers who let me shoot their crows and pigeons.. do a little PR with them, etc.. as my crow season in earnest is a few weeks away AND to possibly make a stand or two...get the rust off the ole fire control system..etc. My old bones need such.
First stand was wonderful. No bag limit records, just seeing 11 crows fall against a very clear blue North Carolina sky was a treat for these eyes. They responded with full confidence...were neutralized with a big smile.... my smile that is.
Second stand.. and last.. found me at the "pecan lady's" home site of a massive killing ( for me solo ) 3 years ago when she had an infestation of crows eating her pecans... trees that her father had planted in the late 2800's. Even since then, I try to make a couple of stops there each year to visit her.. and evaluate the pecan crop.. i.e.crow crop at the same time. About 150 yards behind her home is a very old shed.. about 12x25 feet with a sloping tin roof. I starting "phoning" the crows standing on the edge of the tree line about 15 from the shed and 2 quickly appeared overhead and were drilled. A 3rd showed up in a couple minutes, was shot.. and he fell on the tin roof with a "thump". I continued calling for another 5-8 minutes and two more came in one at the time..and were cancelled.
Another 10 minutes of calling produced not one single additional crow or crow sound that I could hear. I moved out of position to pick up the dead to toss them into the woods..and when I moved around the corner of the building I saw... about 15 feet from me.. real close..a Red Tailed Hawk eating on the crow that had hit the roof. The bird as on the ground..had evidently slid off due to the steep angle. The hawk saw me... flew only about 20 feet away.. landed and just stared at me until I moved to examine the crow. He seems totally unconcerned over my presence. I examined the crow.. the hawk had been in fact gnawing the bird..all the while I was shooting not 25 yards from it. Amazing. Hard to beat Mother Nature.
Skip

Skip, we had a very similiar experience with a hawk this past spring.

http://crowbusters.activeboard.com/t48324132/quite-a-sight-it-took-a-crow-pics-added/

-- Edited by nhcrowshooter on Sunday 7th of October 2012 12:07:05 AM

Glen · Senior Member

I've had the pleasure of seeing a red tailed Hawk attack my plastic crow dekes. THAT my Friends is hilarious!! My Brother & I also had one land about 12-15' from my Brother on a dead crow. Nature is wonderful.

doccerny · Veteran Member

Crazy story Skip! I've got a crazy one too...Last year we were running and gunning and stop at a place on a dead end dirt road (closed for years cause the bridge was out). Took out our dead crows and throwed them up in the trees around us for decoys. The road had a single tree row on both sides and we hid in the middle of the road in a bunch of weeds. We turned on the owl and crow fight and sat back and waited. Seems like we killed a couple there and after about 15 minutes an owl flew into the tree that was right in front of us and over our head ( 15 foot... tops). He landed on a limb about 3 feet from one of our dead decoys and sat there for probably 3 or 4 mins. Then like a flash he pounced on the crow and continued to hold him on that limb for another 3 or 4 min. Then he flies away ..proud as can be of his so called kill ...down the road a hundred yards and into another tree to eat him. Time we got packed up owl and crow were nowhere to be found. That was my best bird watching show last year. We have hawks attack our dead geese in the field alot, especially if they fall on the other side of the terrace from where were hunting. They usually start eating the head and eyeballs first so they don't usually ruin the goose. We've also had owls hit our floating duck decoys in the dark before daybreak.

Doc