I used to hunt crows back in the 1970's with a P.S. Olt crow call I bought when I was a teenager in 1965.
This call sounded exactly like a fish crow, the only variety we have here in coastal Florida. The common crow, found further inland, has a much different voice than a fish crow.
My Olt call wore out decades ago, and my next call was used exclusively to locate gobblers. This call sounded more like a common crow. High-pitched and raspy.
These days I'm troubled with fish crows raiding my backyard fruit trees, especially mangoes. Once in a while I get in a lucky shot with my pellet rifle and that puts an end to their party for a while, but they alway sneak back eventually.
I'd like to find another hand call that sounds like a fish crow. My neighbor played his Johnny Stewart electronic caller with a sound card that sounded like common crows mobbing an owl. There were a huge flock of fish crows in a tree a couple hundred yards away and they completely ignored this sound. I think it was because it didn't sound like them.
Anyone know of a hand call that sounds like a fish crow?
You might find one of the different kind of Olts at Cheaper than Dirt. If you want to keep them out of your trees without having to call or shoot, read my recipe for a scarecrow in the list of threads for this forum. If it doesn't work, I'll drive down and kill them myself.
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"When you have shot one bird flying, you have shot all bird's flying. ...the sensation is the same, and the last one is as good as the first." E. Hemingway "Fathers and Sons"
Fish crows are not near as aggressive as common crows. They just don't act like common crows when hearing a distress call or fighting call. At best they might fly bye just for a look with in range and that is all you really can hope for with them.
That being said I have called a fair number of fish crows with in range with either a Mallardtone or Mincey crow call. It's more a matter of (just my opinion) mimicking there calls (fish crow calls not common crow calls) to get them to respond. I've seen fish crows come into my setup with common crows, they seen to follow the common crows into the setup. Just hunting fish crows is more difficult to coax them in.
Bob A.
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To listen to this radio talk show go to episode 12, Bob Aronsohn
