Never fails. Always some cheese wizard goes and throws away a good thing-they go and shoot up their local roost. I got lucky learning of a crow roost a few years ago and get under one of the flight paths enroute to this roost. It was good for about two hours with stragglers still coming in after dark. Well oneyear I expected the same-wwrroonnggg. No crows were coming by at all! I figured out in no time as to what happened: the roost had been shot at in or near enough to cause them to vacate the whole area altogether!
I am always amazed at the ignorance when this happens! That roost was a critical component as I didn't have to go looking for them-I knew parking under a flight path and I was in business; just give it a break. So it's searching I go yet again. Just a brief lesson on what not to do. Always dumb shooters out there. I think this fall I will go back to old stomping grounds from years ago. Not many hang out there any more but in this immediate area? Nothing really around. You can go days and not see any! Might be due to the summers birds getting fed in the woods namely blue berries I think. Something in the woods as I always tried sneaking up on them near the swamps(I was never successful-wasn't using a shotgun!)...other wise I don't know for sure. THe old strategy was I heard the summers new brood calling to their parents and I would sneak through the trees. But if you don't get one they won't be back...and so it goes. And even if you get one they won't be back either! All the same none around which is why even though the season starts in August for me is a huge waste of time. THis is why I don't go until late October when elsewhere they begin drifting by. And there is something in the fields such as left over corn husks not collected by the harvester. Yup-better than nothing!
