I started putting on dove hunts at my house 3 years ago. This past September we harvested over 1600 dove in four hunts. Now we are gaining a decent number of local dove population due to the increased habitat I have provided for them. With doves comes hawks of course. They are huge red tail hawks, some as big as the vultures we have in the area lol. I know we have crows at the house but honestly have never paid attention to how many I'm always checking the doves out. Are the hawk a plus or minus for crow hunting?
Hard to tell for me. Our locals love to chase red tails around the city. In the field, I often see the reverse, with the hawk(s) keeping the crows away from where I am.
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"Arms are the only true badges of liberty. The possession of arms is the distinction of a free man from a slave." -- Andrew Fletcher 1698
Rockus I plant 20 acres of Clearfield sunflowers for my dove hunts. We bush hog them during the season, our local population has grown year after year. Now I usually have at least 100 doves on my farm year round, starting in early July the numbers start to increase dramatically. By September 1st we have thousands of doves in a 1-2 mile radius of my farm. It is truly unreal how my sunflowers have brought large numbers to my community lol!!
Yeah for doves I would look for the following crops in the falling order. Sunflowers, millet, wheat, any other small grains and then combined or chopped coon. In December when most other food is gone, combined corn fields really shine, buts that really the only time I would hunt them. Another thing is I would not go dove hunting without at least 1 mojo dove and at least 6 ground decoys when hunting alone or small in a small groups. If you can cover the whole perimeter with hunters then you don't need them, and they can be really dangerous. Decoys cause the doves to fly low and right in your face. If you are in a field with a lot of hunters they can cause you to get shot.
This is a picture of some of the doves at the house this past season. It's hard to tell but if you look at all the black dots on the powers lines those are all doves.
Dove are considered songbirds in NY - no hunting. Isn't there a daily bag limit? I remember in TX it was 15/day.
As far as hawks, we have a lot of redtails here. Crows will harass and chase them off nipping at their tails, but they do not make for good crow hunting.
Rookie that really sucks there isn't a season in NY, dove hunting is a ton of fun! There is a limit of 15 doves here in TN, my hunts are paid hunts. We had 30 hunters per hunt and 4 hunts so 120 people plus myself that is why we harvested such a large number of birds lol.
They cohabitate fine, you will see crows mobbing up on the hawks at times though..........
We have had as many as 13 different hawks in trees around us at the same time.....usually when you play any crow sounds that include a hawk/ or a fighting sound the hawks come in hell bent for leather looking for a fight.....
Yesterday I was checking up on a roost that I plan to hunt later this season and less than 200 yards from where the crow roost was, there were several dozen bald eagles. They didn't seem to mind each other. It was definitely cool seeing so many birds of interest that close to each other.
I had a strange hunt this morning.... had decoys out... fully brushed blind... seen crows in the area last few days... started calling this morning and no crows... but a hawk was in the tree above my decoys... I had been baiting this spot for a couple days.... confused... any ideas where I went wrong?
Hawks often screw up my hunt. The crows will harass them so longa sthey are in the neighborhood particularly the big red tailed hawks and that lone Golden eagle one day. Needless ot say no crows came near us that day and every time we went , that red tail was being pusued by crows. eventually everything left that area from pigeons to crows to everything else.
i went looking for crows ina favorite place I used for years and every half a mile was a red tailed hawk sitting in the top of an old maple or oak...or just wheeling about the middle of the field. No crow will put up with that. they eventually all left. The redtailed hawk i like is the oen that sits at the end of the field and grabs a crow i shot.
When the goshawks show up it is all over period. The crows here just leave entirely. The goshawk is one fo teh hawks the crows will not spend any time with at all. Not like redtails. The goshawk is one of their deadliest day time enemies. The other one is the smaller coopers hawk that is so rare as to be of little consequence. But when they start canvassing an area sooner or later the crows will depart for safer pastures too. An equally deadly day time predator is the peregrine falcon. It however leaves fairly early in teh fall so is of little consequence. Badl eagles are no more effective than redtailed- or for that matter -red shouldered hawks...but again-crows get sick and tired of combat with hawks and split....if it is late fall -split for good until spring.
Oddly; the broad winged hawk isn't seen too much as a threat. The smaller hawks will harass crows but cannot really catch one but could damage one pretty good though. But a healthy crow can kill them with ease. One or two epcks and that little hawk is gone. I am sure the tar tar (pigeon hawk) can be a problem but -again-they do not hang around much when it gets cold in September...this all based upon personal experience..
On another note? Hawks will join crows in dive bombing and harassing any large owl they find in the day time.I have seen this behavior with the coopers hawk, the red shouldered hawk and the red tailed hawk (recently).....but as soon as the ionterest is done it's back to battling the hawks...
I have never had any problems with hawks in the area. The crows always seem to be more interested in my set than any birds of prey hang'n around.
The worst part about hawks is that they startle you. They swoop through your set nice and low with a quiet approach. I have reached for my gun more than a few times because a hawk caught me off guard and I did not see it coming. Lucky for them I always realized what it was before I had my gun shouldered.
If I have a problem with another bird, besides crows, it's usually a hawk of turkey vulture. There are very few bald eagles (I have seen 2, but there is probably double that) near where I live so that is not a problem.
Just as it's not good to have decoys below the level of an owl decoy, I can't imagine any crows coming to friendly spread with a Redtail sitting above it. Not where I am anyway. Just my $.02
My technique is to make it appear the red tailed hawk slipped in specifically from the woods and the crows on the ground never saw it. But see here again i put them out a little bit so it doesn't represent the scenario you are painting
