Was asked by a landowner to help him out with his dove field that had been overtaken by crows. The guy I shot with last week made the connection, so the two of us checked it out Wednesday morning. This was another high-fence dove field of 20 acres. It was the nicest high-fence job I've seen, with perfect gates and steel posts...really impressive. If you don't believe me, just study the first photo. The dove field was also near perfect with a great crop of corn and sunflowers and very few weeds.
We drove once around the field to find the best spot for a blind. Then we got out and set up a nice blind in a well shaded spot. We were there for about 45 minutes and while we were working there HUNDREDS of crows flew in to the other side of the field. The dove field is less than a mile from the town landfill, and the crows knew where to find great feeding.
That was Wednesday morning, and we planned to shoot the field with the property owner on Friday morning. Let me tell you, the next two nights I went to bed with visions of sugar plumbs and crows dancing in my head hoping for an early Christmas!!! I knew it was going to be a barn-burner and possibly the best shoot of my career.
Friday morning came, we had the decoy spread just right then got into the blind. A cold morning with no wind, no clouds and pretty much perfect weather for crows. What happened? Nothing happened. In just two days the crows had disappeared!!! The owner's office is located across the street from the field and he promised us that nobody had been in the field shooting, hunting, working or anything. They just weren't anywhere to be seen. Instead of continuous waves of crows coming it, there were a very few groups of passing migratory crows. We worked hard all morning and, with the help of two very good shots, we were able to coax in a few birds and the three of us ended up with 57 crows. Not terrible for a crow hunt, but far shy of my expectations.
Driving home that afternoon, it finally hit me as to what had happened. I made the fatal mistake of being within an active feeding area during the morning while the birds were eating. Spending 45 minutes near the crows was enough for them to put out the word that the property was OFF LIMITS. In hindsight, I should have set up the blind in the late afternoon when the crows had finished feeding.
A simple mistake made because the morning worked better for our schedules. Take note and learn from my mistake, fellow crow hunters. Stay away from feeding crows while scouting! That is my report.
Demi
-- Edited by Island Shooter on Saturday 13th of December 2014 10:47:15 PM
Thanks for the tip, had those same expectations before only to be thwarted by Mr. Crows keen survival instinct. Maybe you will get another chance at them and catch conditions in your favor. Congrats on the hunt! Pics were great and those Dove hunters sure do take the sport to a new level, I agree very impressive.
One day you can see hundreds of crow and prepare for the week end and there'll be either nothing or a handful who take off soon a s your vehicle door slams shut...
The same has happened to me a few times.. I now only set up after dark.. I never look directly at crows while scouting or feeding and never point at them.. May just be superstition...With regards to your recent situation my best guess is those birds feed there all the time and know every inch of that place.... And they know what dove hunters do.. when they saw or heard something different.. they stayed away... Crows ain't stupid.. Best to you.. Mark
I.S. Impossible to know for sure, but I suspect you are 100% correct: you were "busted" by the crows suspicious of your actions/presence! Fine report and pictures by the way! IF you had not been dreaming of a massacre, 57 birds down would have been a pretty good day! Been there done that too.
On the bright side, you did not educate those birds... not at all. So should you find them feeding elsewhere, proceed armed with your new intel. The battle is never quite over, the field never quite ours.
IS -- I know they know me! Hell, they come and harass me at my house in the village and laugh at me. I know they're saying, "There he is! That's the guy."
So, I just try to record their calls to use against them!
You know there have been filmed documentaries.. confirming crows are capable of facial recognition!!!! Bet some faces are easier to remember than others.
You know there have been filmed documentaries.. confirming crows are capable of facial recognition!!!! Bet some faces are easier to remember than others.
Skip
Skip:
That PBS documentary where the fellow wore a mask to test crow memory used a really, really ugly one. Do you suppose there's any co-relation between ugly and crows recognizing certain hunters?
Craig
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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
About that video. A friend & a non- hunter (due to his position of running a birds of prey center) sent me the PBS video. If you watch the mask scene, the man stops...turns...and approaches the crow to get the desired reaction. In other words: Junk Science!!!
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The man who thinks he can, and the man who thinks he can’t are both right.
I have two spots where I do not drive my own vehicle (truck) I ride with my hunting partner and we park a long way away... it has proved to be the right choice..
The study was a Neanderthal ("scary") mask, but the point of the study was that it proved that the offspring of the crows recognized the mask without having ever seen it before, merely through communication of the crows to their young. That was the mindblowing part - that they can pass along that level of information.
Watch the video again. You will see that the response (on 2nd generation) is forced. I do know that they are extremely smart and also, knowing Skip, I agree that both he and I has a face for radio!😄😄
-- Edited by Island Shooter on Monday 15th of December 2014 02:32:28 PM
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The man who thinks he can, and the man who thinks he can’t are both right.
I discovered this place two weeks ago on the way to my dove field.. ( only 2 miles from my house).. This is a guys back yard with bird feeders all over.. with Crow Decoys placed on top of posts etc.. 7 total decoys.. NOW the question is? How is this going to effect the crows that get to have a nice look at the decoys? Sorry that the pics aren't the best, cell phone used..
-- Edited by Mark on Monday 15th of December 2014 06:46:32 PM
-- Edited by Mark on Tuesday 16th of December 2014 08:26:08 PM
Seeing crow decoys on bird feeders is one of those "What the Hey?" moments. Maybe you can hook up with him, use the site for a good rally call session and let him get a closeup look at some real birds!
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The man who thinks he can, and the man who thinks he can’t are both right.
Crows aren't that smart up here! Just here one day and gone the other. Often very hard to pin the crows down as to a pattern of behavior. Lots of space, feed and a flock tends to act as one, that is thousands of birds acting very nomadic. I've set up sitting on a flat of ammo with big intentions only to shoot a few...and gone out on a whim with a couple boxes of shells and been "out" in minutes! A lot depends on wind and weather up here I feel.
Ted
-- Edited by M12Shooter on Tuesday 16th of December 2014 09:15:59 PM
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Life's tough... It's even tougher if you're stupid. John Wayne
You can have a thousand crows one day and the next but a few...soon as the food is gone they move out of the area...what you encountered might have been their final day to get going to whatever winter roost further south and unlike the plains, it is not necessarily that terribly far away.
However, they are very unpredictable until you know them...
that they can be anywhere at any time is very very true....got to keep looking. One fine day i could not find any but i went an hour east and this field was black with them in the northern edges..about 10 acres worth...you just never know..
About your truck; you can buy that military camouflage in big sheets and cover your truck...make it look like some brush heap so you don't have to walk so far lugging tons of decoys and ammo....especially if you go to go a mile into the boonies?
When Dick & I started hunting together 10 to 12 years ago he would want to park his pickup in the next zip code! Out here crows are used to seeing tractors, combines and pickups in the fields. I just park my pickup 50 to 60 yards up wind so no dead crows hit the truck and leave it at that.
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To listen to this radio talk show go to episode 12, Bob Aronsohn
