One of the owners of the many dove fields around here called to ask for help with a crow problem again. We hunted this field a couple months back and bagged 65. He recently re-planted the field and the crows had returned to pull up the sprouted seeds. Our season is over but crop damaging crows can be hunted year-round.
Driving by the field last Monday morning I saw maybe 50 birds, so late Wednesday afternoon I returned to set up a blind. They hadn't all gone to roost yet and when I arrived I ran off 6 or 8 birds. The last one was giving out the danger call. The blind was set for a hunt on Friday morning. I've got to say it was a good looking blind.
Once we got into the blind it was quickly evident that the crows had vacated the area...we worked very hard to bring down 4 birds before leaving. We picked up the decoys and left, but I returned that afternoon and coaxed in 5 more crows to bring the total up to 9. The only good news was those few birds drove our annual blind count past the 700 mark.
Question: Would a small handful of crows seeing me pull into the field cause a mass evacuation, or was it some other factor? What's your call?
Demi
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The man who thinks he can, and the man who thinks he can’t are both right.
Absolutely! This one area was hit so much by anyone simply being there let alone anyone else shooting at crows unbeknownst to me that they'd all get up as one big flock and nothing the rest of the day! In fact anytime I showed up as one they vacated!By anyone simply being there! Turns out in my case that it was hit pretty good by goose hunters and a crow don't know what is going on!
They learned that a vehicle pulling into the area meant time to move on-they aren't that naive! Not especially with a load of lead in their bacon!
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Top Cat Statutes never replaced or rewrote the constitution!
Do you really think 7 to 8 birds who saw your approach flew away met up with the other 40+ birds, held a conference and explained the situation to them? LOL!!! The birds you saw a few days before were either migrants who moved on, or they found a another place to feed. If someone else had recently hunted the field you would have seen birds but they would have acted decoy and call shy.
Do you really think 7 to 8 birds who saw your approach flew away met up with the other 40+ birds, held a conference and explained the situation to them? LOL!!! The birds you saw a few days before were either migrants who moved on, or they found a another place to feed. If someone else had recently hunted the field you would have seen birds but they would have acted decoy and call shy.
Absolutely in agreement. That often happened in the old areas I frequented.
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Top Cat Statutes never replaced or rewrote the constitution!
Not sure what you are agreement with TC, you were not very clear. So today ends the second of the two weekends in the NH Spring '17 season. You shooting any birds on your side of the state?
NHcrowshooter; your observation of why the crows leave every time someone shows up. Not going out this spring-was-but the snow came in and the cold. I swear to you there's no real shootable crows in my immediate ten mile radius or further. I have to go two hours to do any and I don't normally go in spring any more. I don't like trudging in snow for the distances I need to find no crows. Not even to shoot one or two.
In fall it is a different story ..last year my competition beat me to the punch. This is why I got so few. But I learned where they are more available but not until the 11th hour of last years' season. Thanks for your interest.
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Top Cat Statutes never replaced or rewrote the constitution!
Our shooting began in Maine in late January, things started out great, it had been an easy winter with hopes for an early spring. Then as you know three big snow storms hit within 8 days in early Feb. Parking a truck was a problem, walking out to a blind was a problem. I actually went out hunting on snow shoes four times. That snow melted quick but then we got slammed with a true blizzard in mid March just before NH opened. We have also been plagued with many days of below normal temps (wind chills below zero) in the AM and many days with high winds (gusting to 40). I have not seen a northern migration on any of the days I have been out as yet. The result is I have been out much less this spring compared to last year and shot about 40% fewer crows than the mild spring last year. Hoping things turn on this week, we shall see.
I am sympathetic...I miss the good old days....you could hunt the middle of March about the arrival but all the farms dried up....you can look on sattelitte and it looks great but those maps are out dated. In example I checked out an area and it was all houses!
Anyways you got some shooting in.
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Top Cat Statutes never replaced or rewrote the constitution!
Thanks for the replies. The general consensus is that it is the crows who are fickle and not me who is running them off. In the past, I've scared them out of a field by building a blind during mid-day hours, but now do it in the late afternoon.
After hunting them for 15 years, I find that I'm still learning something about them every time I go out.
Demi
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The man who thinks he can, and the man who thinks he can’t are both right.