Last week I got a call from a friend who is connected with a farmer suffering with crow damage to his watermelon crop on Kiawah Island. Kiawah is an exclusive development full of very high-end homes and second homes. Serving this community is a small shopping center near the entrance. One of the stores is a "farmers market" loaded with high priced local produce.
The melon field is only about a quarter of a mile from the store and that's where the crows have been coming in. Note the circled area in the lower middle of the first picture, where we set up the blind. Also note the shopping complex nearby.
With the heat and early season, we did not expect much, and that is about all we got. After a couple groups of common crows came in, we were visited by a large group of fish crows, but they stayed high. we pulled down a couple, but the rest moved on. The end result was 8 crows, with a few fallen over the fence or lost in the melon vines.
As close as our blind was, I'm sure the shoppers could hear us shooting. I just wonder if they figured out they were buying "Organic" watermelons, but not necessarily "No-Harm" melons!
Excellent work, if you can get it! I always love helping farmers protect their crops. I recently picked up a watermelon operation that is suffering because of coyotes tearing up their melons.
Your operation here is similar to my crow control work inside a gated community. Some of the luxury homes there have aircraft hangers, in addition to their multi-car garages. Classy crow hunting, indeed.
Update: Farmer called today and reported that he has not seen the first crow in the field since we hunted. He is a happy camper! The number count was low, but word got around to the crow circuit very quickly.
Demi
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