How to deal with the bloody crows?

[bjkjoseph]

they sell this thing on amazon..its a sprinkler with a motion sensor..i forget the name...they have video of it in action.

 

[woodchip]

Do you mean one of these:

http://www.pigeoncontrolresourcecentre.org/html/reviews/scarecrow-bird-scarer.html

I had one, it works on humans too ;-)

 

[firefighterjake]

This is when good neighbors are a great thing to have. An air rifle is not that loud. It is possible that they won't be able to recognize the sound as a "gunshot" at all. Most of my varmint shots are into the backyard from inside the hosue through a small opening in a sliding glass door.

I've also been known to blast a 12 gauge round into a moving mole hill. Sometimes, on special occasions, I've even been known to shoot a bottle rocket into the air.

For some reason, WA state has classified crows as small game with a bag limit and season. I don't eat them. There is also a season for bullfrogs, coyotes, and racoons but I don't know of anyone that eats those either. Apparently hunting does not necessarily mean eating.

http://froglegs.org/



As for the racoon or coyotes . . . pest control?

There are a couple locals that eat raccoon. IIRC, that is what coon hounds are bred to track.

No kidding . . . a few folks here run the dogs for coons . . . but they just do it for the skins.

 

[firefighterjake]

Reminds me of the story my neighbor told me about the guy who owned this house before me. Seems he disliked the crows, and shot/killed one of them one day. The whole flock came down on him and went for his face/head. Chased him back in the house, and circled the house for an hour afterward. Neighbor saw it all from his back porch.

Reminds me of an incident a couple years ago. My wife and I were sitting in the hot tub on the back porch when we saw a gray squirrel with a nut running in the woods. He would run a bit and stop and look around, run a bit, stop and look around . . . and there was a crow hopping behind him . . . eventually the squirrel stopped, buried the nut and moved on . . . and the crow who had stood back aways simply went to the spot where the squirrel was and dug up the nut. Bird: 1: Mammals: 0.

 

[Highbeam]

Surely the coons and even the coyotes are valued for their hides. But crows? Not sure why they need to be managed as a game species.

There are websites dedicated to the methods and practice of killing crows. Seems that many folks enjoy killing 100 at a time. The crows' odd habit of collecting at the site of a dead crow means that you can just keep stacking them up. Very intelligent birds relative to the others. They have also been known to put nuts out in the road, wait for a car do drive over it to open it, then swoop sown to eat the nut meat. That takes learning, planning, and patience.

Lots of cool legends about crows too. Oh and be careful, a crow looks just like a raven except for a couple of very small details. It is illegal to kill ravens in WA. The ravens are much larger, round tail, and have deep voices. If it is in the act of depredation though, I'm pretty sure I would kill it.

 

[JustWood]

Those crows are in the act of depradation (sp). Legally can be killed on the spot any time of year in WA. Kill it dead and hang it out for its family to see. I have a nice old beeman 20 caliner pellet gun for them, or the 22, or the 12 gauge but usually the quieter and relatively safe air gun.

I've been killing starlings the last few weeks when they are depredating the worms in my grass. These are an invasive species though unlike the crows which are an actual small game species with a real season in WA.

Hang the bastage by his legs so his wings span out. This way it can be seen a long ways of by it's brethren. They are really smart animals and will know to stay away when they see this. I've never had a problem with them and leave them alone as they are carrion but I know people who have and they can get to be a real nuisance.