Got a report about a crow infestation in a flooded corn field. Flooded corn field? The property is an old plantation that grew rice 300 years ago using a system of dikes and trunks from the nearby river. These days most of the old plantations put their rice fields in corn, millet and/or other crops, then flood them to attract ducks. In this case, the crows had moved in and were landing to feed on the corn stalks now standing in waist deep water.
The owners were friends, so we set up a husbands/wives hunt similar to the ones they had hunted during previous "Crow Week" hunts with Jerry Tomlin. This meant it would need to be a 4-man blind. As the blind had to be set up on one of the narrow dikes, so I chose a location that was at a T-intersection of two dikes so that I could have room for some decoys. Because there were no cover trees, I chose to build a back wall of small pine trees attached to fence posts.
The hunt was scheduled the morning after the beautiful lunar eclipse. The weather was clear and very cold for us...in the low 30's with a slight breeze. Good thing I had the Little Buddy heaters to take some of the chill off. We got to it but even with the extra blind brush, the crows mostly came in high and wary, which made for some high altitude bring-downs. After a couple of hours in the bitter cold the crows slowed down and we netted out with 35 crows down.
I have no dead crow pictures because most of the birds fell into the flooded fields and could not be retrieved. We were also treated to several fly-by displays of bald eagles, ducks and an otter checking out a couple of our downed crows (didn't take any of them).
Here are the pictures.
Demi
Picture 1: Satellite photo of property and blind location
Interesting report. Killer blind! Never heard of farmers deliberately flooding corn fields around SW MI. Usually when the fields flood around here as they seem to do during our periods of heavy rain, it causes them lots of problems.
Thanks!
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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
These crops are strictly for game management and they do not harvest any of what is grown. They wait until the crop is mature and drying before flooding. Once in water, the deer and hogs leave it alone and usually only the ducks can access it. The crows and blackbirds take some, but not much.
Interestingly, the ducks swim under the corn then jump up to hit the dried ears with their beaks, knocking down what kernels they can reach and then eat it on the water. As the ducks strip the lower parts of the ears, they pump more water into the field, giving them higher water and access to more of the ears. The crows and blackbirds peck from above.
If the crows return, on our next trip we will hunt them from a nearby dove field on the property. We will then return to the normal "Thud" sounds instead of the splash!
Demi
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The man who thinks he can, and the man who thinks he can’t are both right.
Doesn't that flooded corn shooting require steel shot & a crow stamp LOL!! I also have to add that the blind is quite nice ! As expected. Demi, being concealed should never be an issue for you.
These crops are strictly for game management and they do not harvest any of what is grown. They wait until the crop is mature and drying before flooding. Once in water, the deer and hogs leave it alone and usually only the ducks can access it. The crows and blackbirds take some, but not much.
Demi
OK. Got it. We have a large State Game Area a short distance from here, in Big Honkers's Area of Operations. The DNR (Dept. of Natural Resources) permits farmers to plant there if they leave a specific percentage of the crops (usu. corn) for the geese and other critters.
Still, don't know of any other fields (except cranberries, of course) that are intentionally flooded. Interesting technique.
Big Honkers? You out there?
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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
Yeah, there is some diked & flooded crop fields around locally but not many. There are several state run waterfowl areas that operate in the same way Demi described with water control devises, ditches, rivers, dikes, and standing crops. Most of them are on the east side of the state but operate in a similar fashion as the dry ground unit you mentioned on our side of the state. I have had some good hunts on those places...and plenty of bad ones too. :)
