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Crow down

carlsbad

carlsbad

Lions don't lose sleep over the opinions of sheep.
In my suburban neighborhood the house next door is temporarily empty while the owners remodel. A crow in the front yard was apparently very healthy and then just dropped in it's tracks. Went down an never moved.

On an unrelated note, I'm very happy with my benjamin marauder 22 caliber pellet gun. It is happiest stored with air in the chamber so you pull it out of the gunsafe and it is ready to go. Deadly accurate shooting less than dime size groups at 25 yards. Almost silent--just a little poof.

It would be good for our neighborhood if more of these crows should suddenly take ill. But crows are smart and if they see a man with a long black thing they fly off.

--Jerry
 
They have a small kill zone, very difficult for a rifle. I use to hunt them in the winter calling them and using a shotgun. We'd sit in a blind, call them, and they would fly in and circle the blind and we'd blast away. Distress call worked the best with an owl decoy. Crows hate owls.:mad: Perfected the manual call.

Fast forward - I acquired (long story) one as a pet, Blackie. Not an original name I admit. Raised him from a baby feeding him dog food. He thought I was his mamma. He was the best pet I ever had; we were buds. After that I couldn't bring my self to shoot them anymore. :( Became a retired crown hunter.:oops:

Good thing I never had a pet ground hog; that would have ruined my spring / summer varmint hunting.:oops: I could become a bud of ground hog, they are cute and I love them but can't resist the challenge of hunting them. One of life's contradictions. :( Please don't tell the farmers where I hunt of my confession. :cool:, I'd be banned for sure. :(
 
Crow hunting in Africa, they aren't dumb there either but a Foxpro and a shotgun will work. Myself and two hunting buddies whacked 21 in two evenings.

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K22 said:
They have a small kill zone, very difficult for a rifle. I use to hunt them in the winter calling them and using a shotgun. We'd sit in a blind, call them, and they would fly in and circle the blind and we'd blast away. Distress call worked the best with an owl decoy. Crows hate owls.:mad: Perfected the manual call.

Fast forward - I acquired (long story) one as a pet, Blackie. Not an original name I admit. Raised him from a baby feeding him dog food. He thought I was his mamma. He was the best pet I ever had; we were buds. After that I couldn't bring my self to shoot them anymore. :( Became a retired crown hunter.:oops:

Good thing I never had a pet ground hog; that would have ruined my spring / summer varmint hunting.:oops: I could become a bud of ground hog, they are cute and I love them but can't resist the challenge of hunting them. One of life's contradictions. :( Please don't tell the farmers where I hunt of my confession. :cool:, I'd be banned for sure. :(
Click to expand...

Same thing with me but he was a Raven. His name was Crowsy, lol. He got electrocuted but his wife comes by every day for an chicken egg.
 
Friend of mine growing up, had a pet magpie. It was very tame, and became buds with his dog Cindy. The bird would perch on Cindy's back as the dog walked around the neighborhood. I bet kids in the "burbs" don't have pets like that these days. jd
 
I think you guys have figured it out. Symptoms totally consistent with acute lead poisoning.

Indeed crows and their cousins the magpies and ravens are smart birds and would probably make good pets. But they don't fit into the world in much of a useful way as I see it. Growing up in rural MO, I hardly ever saw a crow. The conventional stereotype is that crows are rural birds that live in cornfields. But farmers shot them because they didn't want them eating the crops. Indeed, I believe my dad told me when he was a kid there was a bounty on them in MO. You turned in the feet to collect it.

By the time I was old enough to hunt (60's and 70's), if you did see a crow, it was hundreds of yards off (another indication of intelligence, or natural selection, or both). Today, that would be a nice challenge but then it was out of range.

Enter urban areas with no hunting--crows thrive, eat various things that grow (or get thrown away) in urban and suburban areas. The get very brave if they don't see any weapons. My big complaint with them is that if my grass gets wet--after a rain or even if I run the sprinklers too close to dawn--they will dig up my lawn looking for bugs. (I keep my back yard trimmed to about 1/2" tall grass as a chipping area for my son).

So I'm good with them suffering this sudden affliction. but I have to say, I haven't had any problems in my yard since Ben showed up. Often I leave the Ben set up on bipod and bag just inside the sliding rear door--seems to work as a scarecrow.

--Jerry
 
The starlings in my neighborhood do the same thing when it rains. There is a rainwater basin behind my house and when it drizzles, I could probably take out 15 with one shotgun blast, but I am pretty sure the neighbors would complain! One of the disadvantages of living right in the middle of town. Then again, the local Wal-greens pick-up window had pigeons roosting over it, they hired someone with a pellet gun to take care of it. Wish I had known. At least PETA didn't get involved.
 
Anyone not already familar with Ted's holdover on youtube, it seems the nuisance animals in his area have that same affliction, and he has video if they haven't cancelled him along with all the rest of the gun videos.
 
There is nothing that I've experienced that seems more satisfying than nailing a crow with a rifle. I happened to get lucky many years ago to have one land on a gravel road about 250 yards in front of the pickup I was driving at the time. They are definitely wary and other flying crows were blasting a warning to the one sitting and eating some garbage when I pulled over and stopped. Slowly sneaking out of the truck and getting prone, that poor fool was just really enjoying his meal when a 55 gr. Sierra just dropped him in place.
I know a lot of luck played into the whole situation let alone the hit, but I've never forgotten the shot. Would send my condolences to his widow with another Sierra if I had the chance.
 
I killed a deer and by the time it took me to lower the gun, two crows were on it going after the wound area. I needed to climb down out of my stand, run to the deer and drag her a hundred yards to a horse shed so I could resume hunting. I'll kill every crow that gives me the opportunity. As far as being intelligent, I haven't yet seen one on the other end of a 17 Fireball. Having said all that, featherbombs are closely related to snerting and as such remain in the top ten of varmint hunting. :D

For more info and those that like crow hunting, check out this site. It's got some good info and tips.

http://www.crowbusters.com/cgi-bin/index.asp
 
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