I knew something was going on in that area for some time, But after leaving my deer hunting place a couple times early evening & driving home i saw the crows stacked up in the tree's right along the state highway. One day we had 30 to 40 mph winds & i saw them while driving by at the same place & that sealed the deal, I said i'm gonna have to stake out this area.
Yesterday i went there ( only 25 miles from home ) at 4.00 in the afternoon. Gets dark at 5.30 here. I saw some 2 & 3 groups still feeding & just a few flyers. I pull off the road on the highest place i can find and wait & watch. Within 30 minutes there they were ! They were pouring in & flying to my south. The chase was on. The roads dont always cooperate & visibility is limited by tree's & low ground. I try to intercept them & i lose em. So i decide to continue on & get back to where i started but at the crest of a hill on a red dirt road there they were. Probably 50 in the tree's BUT i counted at least 70 on the ground feeding. They were about 400 yards away & i'm watching with binoculars thinking this may be the roost. Then i had my moment. There was a black river of crows coming from my right & flew right over and in front of me and joined the others ! It lasted for less than a minute but it was just like the pic Bob A. had posted of a flying stream of black in the air ! So now my heart is racing & my blood pressure is topping out & i roll down my window to get a better look & they take off to the north west. Chase on again ! Same story, cant find em. I decide to go back east where i started because i'm losing daylight & there they were, all stacked up along the highway with more joining in. I keep my distance this time.
Just before dark they make their move north into the thickest most unchartered 2 square mile area of cedar's in the area. Somewhere in there is the roost.
So i suppose the first gathering spot was a staging area. Now i wonder if this was all the birds or just ones returning from the south ? I know they leave like spokes on a wheel but do they return that way also ? I saw hundreds not thousands. I spent time on google earth studying the area & what's interesting is that it is less than 15 miles from a pecan orchard i hunt, could be where they come from. Patient's is a virtue so i'll have to spend some mornings there as well as a few more evenings & try to find a flyway that i can get access to. Bob A. this is not the group you spoke of a while back, These are close to home !!! This is my first go around with a roost so any advice on how to proceed from here would be helpful. And no i'm NOT entering or shooting up the roost area.
Find a spot about a mile away and find an area you can put up or modify an area as a blind. Find wind direction they would fly into or face enroute to the roost. You might find you will need more ammunition too...my best advice is to not take just anyone with you-I found out the hard way they'll go with out you sooner or later. Here's the deal; you could do the south (in example)end in example one afternoon (remember what I shared with you in a private message)hit them from the south; next time the north end if they are operating that way. They don't always but here again depends on the size of that roost too. They might only take one route like the ones I dealt with did.
No big deal; save up your ammunition for another hit-buy more ammo and give that route a break and don't tell a soul! Hell is having competition. Someone else is always a crow shooter. If someone else discovers it well you'll have to make friends. Here at one time we had more crow shooters than available areas and you know my history here. Don't make it yours!
So all you need to do now is to follow the aforementioned advice-you lucky devil! Now you should see some real action like never before so long as they come in singles. Well okay so they are an endless stream? Now you got to get off to the side aways to pull in individuals....as if the streaming crows were the actual roost in flight so to speak. All you want is single crows breaking off to check you out in which case you check them out.For good.
Good luck!
-- Edited by killer Crowalski on Monday 17th of December 2018 03:48:18 PM
Our final hunt last year happened to be in a dove field that was near a flyway from a roost (that I could not locate). We hunted both morning and afternoon, taking a 2 hr. break for lunch and two of us netted 173, all but one being fish crows!
If you find a good place to set up, you are potentially in for great hunting, so bring your A-Game!
Dont expect any TBC numbers right away. I still have a lot of recon to do, and it's still possible that it's a small roost. I have to do a few more stake out's to see what their pattern is. I'll keep you posted. Maby get some pics while i'm spotting.
Good news / bad news on the roost. Went back 2 days ago at about 3.00 pm on a nice calm sunny afternoon. Did a drive around the perimeter of the roost , a couple miles each direction where roads allowed. No big numbers, just a few feeders here & there. So i park and watch the sky with my binoculars waiting to see where they will come from. While parked there I meet the rancher that owns the high ground almost next to it . I tell him that he is probably aware that there is a crow roost nearby. His reply was to be expected, No, I usually see 1 or 2 around my house but that's it ! He's a nice guy & lets me walk up on his high ground to spot. I stayed till dark & only saw about 10 or so playing in the suspected roost area. So now i'm thinking it may not be a roost, or maby like i read in Bert's book they came in late because of the nice weather ?
So today with 30 to 40 mph winds from the north i go back at 3.30. I park at my new high ground area & start watching. I see crows already there ! Good. I'm watching & then the black river flying from south to north crosses the road right where i expected & joins the others. I did my best to count them as they crossed & it was about 200. They pretty much came as one large mass. Twice they made moves that put me driving down the road but they never left the wooded section. At one point i drove to an old oilfield tank battery & got on top & watched to make sure they would not depart to another location. On one drive another group flew in, probably 75 to 100. I stayed till dark & watched them play their crow games then disappear into the cedars. Also, while all this is going on i have a big tub full of dead crows in the bed of my truck that i hadn't yet disposed of & i was just hoping they didn't spot them & swarm me. They didn't, but it had me concerned.
So, Bad news is that my guess is it's 500 crows there at the most. What a learning experience ! Crows come in to roost early in bad weather. They fly into the wind on windy days when approaching, at least these did. Just because you dont see them come in every evening doesn't mean they aren't roosting there.
The rancher owns 220 acres there, He also knows every land owner around that area. This is very good news ! Since it's only 25 miles from me i'll have to try something. I'm afraid if i set up at the ranchers place i'll be greeted by a 200 crow swarm which will exit stage left after the first shot ! I suppose i should see which way they leave in the morning & find a spot a few miles out and do a feeding setup for the day. i'll get back on this.
Good news / bad news on the roost. Went back 2 days ago at about 3.00 pm on a nice calm sunny afternoon. Did a drive around the perimeter of the roost , a couple miles each direction where roads allowed. No big numbers, just a few feeders here & there. So i park and watch the sky with my binoculars waiting to see where they will come from. While parked there I meet the rancher that owns the high ground almost next to it . I tell him that he is probably aware that there is a crow roost nearby. His reply was to be expected, No, I usually see 1 or 2 around my house but that's it ! He's a nice guy & lets me walk up on his high ground to spot. I stayed till dark & only saw about 10 or so playing in the suspected roost area. So now i'm thinking it may not be a roost, or maby like i read in Bert's book they came in late because of the nice weather ?
So today with 30 to 40 mph winds from the north i go back at 3.30. I park at my new high ground area & start watching. I see crows already there ! Good. I'm watching & then the black river flying from south to north crosses the road right where i expected & joins the others. I did my best to count them as they crossed & it was about 200. They pretty much came as one large mass. Twice they made moves that put me driving down the road but they never left the wooded section. At one point i drove to an old oilfield tank battery & got on top & watched to make sure they would not depart to another location. On one drive another group flew in, probably 75 to 100. I stayed till dark & watched them play their crow games then disappear into the cedars. Also, while all this is going on i have a big tub full of dead crows in the bed of my truck that i hadn't yet disposed of & i was just hoping they didn't spot them & swarm me. They didn't, but it had me concerned.
So, Bad news is that my guess is it's 500 crows there at the most. What a learning experience ! Crows come in to roost early in bad weather. They fly into the wind on windy days when approaching, at least these did. Just because you dont see them come in every evening doesn't mean they aren't roosting there.
The rancher owns 220 acres there, He also knows every land owner around that area. This is very good news ! Since it's only 25 miles from me i'll have to try something. I'm afraid if i set up at the ranchers place i'll be greeted by a 200 crow swarm which will exit stage left after the first shot ! I suppose i should see which way they leave in the morning & find a spot a few miles out and do a feeding setup for the day. i'll get back on this.
Paul,
Just when a guy thinks he's got them figured out they go and do something different. Recon the day before and hope for the best. I'd say if you have 500 in the roost and most of them concentrate in one area while feeding, you've potentially got a fun shoot waiting to happen. If they scatter in all directions for the day it'll be tough. Keep us posted.
"Only" 500 crows?! Hey well it's still doable! I understand all too well 500 crows all getting up as one. Well it weren't 500 but more like 300-350 but used to happen to me. Yeah it will be a challenge indeed. What I used to do was to deliberately "kick" them all out and quickly set up. What happened next was singles and doubles would dribbling back in but no more than a dozen (in any given group returning so plenty of action). Here too you can make out. Now I understand all coming back at once to the roost too. However my "roost" was about 50 birds well south of where I normally or started to go. And the more northern area about an hour north was pay dirt! My problem was I could shoot at them all I wanted to the northwest but the south east was strictly out of bounds. But you can through trial and error work it out. The only reason basically I lost so much was the loss of the old seagull/rat dumps that anchored the crows through out the winter....
-- Edited by killer Crowalski on Friday 21st of December 2018 05:32:26 AM
