When I went looking I generally found where they were hanging out and the more I looked the more I saw but when I went back the following day-you guessed it-no crows!!! I saw them in the usual haunts to begin with but mostly there were flocks of any where from 30 ish at the most with singles and doubles but no huge flights anywhere when I could safely look up.....so I will take what I can get it's nothing different from years ago when you get any you did better than nothing....might not be any as this weekend is supposed to sleet which indeed puts the final nail in the coffin....again this year I saw the results of the new super efficiency corn cutting.....which cleaned up the fields very well....so well in fact the farmers generally don't plant as much.....why one area did it this year I am not complaining....they just don't leave the corn left overs like they used to...
Where I did see the crows were often inaccessible areas due to the houses often enough or too close to the road that it is questionable....Vermont would allow it but not NH.....this means while you cannot jump out of your vehicle shooting ;you wouldn't have to go as far as New Hampshires' rulings which would be three times minimum as far as Vermonts…..I ment naturally you cannot shoot in just anyones' yard a fairly good sized roadside field with no houses around or anything unsafe or annoying wouldn't be an issue....and yet here were the crows busily munching away on something in a relative sliver of a corn field. In any a case one shot and they'd split that scene which is why I pass up fields completely safe to shoot in -not that the crows would hang around watching me unload my gear which as we know they'd sound the alarm and book maybe not returning for the season as their wintering grounds are too far away to return when I am gone...seen it done before....so some parts of the state hold a number of birds good luck finding ways to get at them....and just don't ezpect to get the numbers at the same time....unless you can find an area they are still drifting down from further north....?
One of the biggest hassles are those hungry accipiters or largely the bigger bird hawks such being the coopers-a crow sized hawk that often goes after the crows with little success as often times the crows have good numbers.....BobA has a fine looking Coopers in one of his photographs other wise look them up on you tube where in one case one kept attacking a plastic great horny owl,,,,they have done it routinely attacks my decoys when ever I am out sooner or later....and crows will often attack these hawks too when they come too close or pick a fight with Ole,Heckle and Jeckle for some spectacular dog fights.....that could as easily result in the death of any hawk desperate enough to grab a crow.....these accipiters have a very unique flight characteristic as in flap and sail idea but this time of year they will soar about like their cousins the buzzard hawks or buteos species the hawk you see in summer lazily soaring about in circles high up.....whose attack method is to suddenly fold their wings and drop like a bomb onto any unsuspecting bird...if you've ever seen a high sky battle with crows they often employ this technique but against crows I;ve not seen any success.....
-- Edited by killer Crowalski on Wednesday 28th of October 2020 04:04:59 PM
When everything seems perfect and the crows won't come near you and stay far away at the end of the field it's often a hawk they are harassing...usually that means that area is through for the day or you can wait it out until the hawk eventually leaves where upon now the crows will come over and look your set up over....but that could be a couple of hours before the crows approaching the other end of the field-newbies-who will bother themselves to see about your decoys not having spotted the real live fighting a half mile off or so,,,,
If you would spend half as much time hunting as you do typing a post like this you would find plenty of crows in NH this fall. Our weather has been tough this past week but there are lots of crows moving through, thousands.
Professor...you made me chuckle...deal being I saw lots of crows but the other thing was they were moving. ...and moving.....my biggest mistake was so too was I! So for me it was a bust so far....damn birds weren't holding up like years ago when Field and Stream wrote a short article which was handy indeed (1972 or there abouts)...but the birds stayed in inaccessible areas namely you know where where you cannot get at them ....was my complaint (of many I am sure you noted) but we can agree it is a lot of work....my "best" shoot was not that great but not many birds in that particular spot but they were there for what that is worth....just a lot lot more further north as by now we know all too well...I haven't been up this year to watch them going to roost however as it is frustrating to just watch them come in and no way to get at them despite an amazing sight for NH.....I have been scouting for frankly hours these weekends so I have seen a lot but the numbers you reported....had I seen that guarantee you I'd have lots of misses this year....another big mistake is not knowing the shotgun well I use as I like to experiment with "disastrous" results...meaning like my tomato stake I didn't know you had to change the rings to low brass in example..having bought it with just the high brass rings it being "used"'''installed...so I needed low brass so it's not over yet just and if nothing else maybe I will just watch those crazy crows up north going to roost if it's the same one they've used in years past unless the snow was in fact the final nail in this seasons coffin despite the fact it's not legally" over with yet....finally I haven't used the 11-87 in a few years....I think it was designed to be a waterfowl gun anyways and I still think the Remington 1100 was a better over all gun-just an opinion that's all and as we know everyone has their own choices at which they do very very well with' You two probably shoot your ten gauges better than any one else in the state what will all the shooting you do each year....well keep up the good work. Hopefully I am back to "work" this week end....(yes with yet another new shiot gun so I can moan and groan about my lousy shooting and general lack of crows-especially now)I didn't see "thousands" in my scouting but you did but it all adds up but all I saw was a flock of twenty here and there at most and the usual two or three lazily flapping along.....you by the way have the Maine bunches moving through as well whereas for me it's the Montreal bad boys (and girls )
-- Edited by killer Crowalski on Friday 30th of October 2020 04:18:53 PM
Very sorry and correcting them with this junky computer is difficult to correct......my regular computer is out of the picture. No virus to speak of but it's too old. Thanks have a nice season!
Unusually warm weather just might be keeping the crows in the region here in NH at least I hope so......all a crow really wants is to eat and eat and eat and I saw farmers here and there over the past week dumping cow refuse and crows love the thick rich taste of cow bosco!!
Are you going to stuff it? One year-a few ago I saw pirbalds myself....one was really weird and if you saw BobAs, collection the one I saw was brown with white spots all over it like that particular one....!!
