Hunting Crowdogs . . .

[VFX_man]

Hi all, wanted to hear of your "crow" experiences while hunting. Have become more attuned to the resident 2 crows in my hood in Urban Vancouver and am surprised how much of a Watchdog they are.

1) This morning they started at 6am -- screaming at a mother raccoon and her 4 babies that were climbing the fence into our backyard.

2) A few evenings ago [past the "normal" crow commute http://www.theprovince.com/life/Murder+mystery+reason+crows+flock+Burnaby+every+ni ght/9085538/story.html ] A crow was screaming up a storm in the font yard. Went out to walk the dog and a huge raccoon was sitting in the yard. I scared it off, and then the crow left.

Why the Raccoon hate? Suspect the half eaten juvenile crow I found next to the house had some factor in it. Figure a Raccoon was guilty of it's demise.

3) Came into work a few weeks ago and something had gotten into the garbage on the deck and had it spread all over the place. The crows were feasting. We cleaned it up, but for the next hour the crows were outside screaming. I went out and didn't see anything. About 15 min later someone went out for a smoke and saw a raccoon sleeping on the roof cover. The crows were right above him yelling ---- took be a bit, but figured out that the raccoon had opened the trash and the crows were trying to wake him up to go and open it again.

Hunting stories

1) As a kid in MO, on 2 occasions while WT hunting -- heard crows calling and they were flying right above deer. Missed the buck below [was in tree stand] since I was looking up at them :( and the other time it was a herd of does during Buck season -- the crows need the regulation book I guess.

2) Had a crow up near Boston Bar, see me, circled around and landed above me and have a few "soft" calls. It then took off and flew back up the hill behind me and commenced quite a racket that went on for about 10 min. It then flew back and landed above me, looked at me for a bit, then "yelled" and left. Later figured there was probably a deer back behind me.

3) Hunting partner said he has had similar crow stories that lead to kills.

Of course, the crows have figured out . . . Hunter + deer = gut pile = dinner!


Also, was in the backyard garden recently. The crow was on the powerline above me making noise for a bit. Looked around, the bird bath was empty of water. Filled it up and went in --- crow came down and drank.

Wife thinks they are alien invaders who are collectively observing humans . . . LOL

Cheers, Marshall

[Buckmeister]

Smart critters fer sure, and annoying as heck with all their squawking, screeching, cawing. When my now 10 year old daughter was 2 or 3, we had a murder of crows hanging around the neighborhood making quite a racket day after day for weeks on end. My daughter learned how to imitate their calls quite well, thought we had a crow in the house sometimes.
Never thought about their presence indicating live deer nearby when hunting. If I saw a bunch of them I always assumed a gut pile or kill of some-kind was near by, which is usually the case. I will have to pay more attention in the future if I encounter a noisy crow in the bush.

[338win mag]

I have a family of crows living in one of my trees, smart birds and they keep Starlings, Maggpies, etc.. and other pesky birds away.
They also eat Mice, Voles and other rodent pops down. I have put out at least 25 mice and voles I have trapped for them to eat and the Crows pick them up right away. They dont yell at us around their young anymore and they let us pet the young birds learning to fly, I like them.

[Fisher-Dude]

People should watch this documentary from PBS.

The intelligence of crows is beyond anything we may have expected.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBJKPwIFzDI

[VFX_man]

re: Video post

Had seen that a few years back, thanks for the reminder. Definitely something to be aware of --- and use to a "Hunters" advantage. Please keep me posted if you have an event during the upcoming season.

Another couple of funny ones . . .

Have been waging a small war with a Squirrel that likes to harvest [steal] food from my backyard garden. The other day, Let the dog chase him up the power pole and I was heckling it while it just taunted us . . . suddenly, out of nowhere, a crow came swooping in and whacked it scaring it off. Thanks Crowdog!

A few years back, had decorated my house for Halloween with a few fake crows on the roof and in a dead tree . . . neighbour said it sounded like WW3. The crows basically beat the crap out of the fake crows until they realized they were no threat. But the years after that -- they were fine since they knew they were fake.

Cheers, VFX

[boxhitch]

Was getting firewood earlier this spring in a spot where I have set up for calling wt deer a few times.
Heard the distinct grunt of a buck that piqued my curiosity , then again, then the tone changed a little, then a squawk, then a crow fly off a perch nearby, cackling as it soared past almost like it was laughing.

[Walking Buffalo]

Watch for the Barrel Roll, that's the sign to follow....

[Jagermeister]

I've had a few in my 'hood. They're devastating on the small song birds, robbing the nests of eggs and hatch-lings. Hence, I take any opportunity to whack them and the magpies with the pellet gun. Crows have excellent facial recognition and it has been said that their IQ is equivalent to that of a chimpanzee. I have conditioned the local crows so that all I have to do is point at one and they exit stage right. Sometimes in the evenings as they fly over heading to roost, I will clap my hands which sends them into a series of evading maneuvers disrupting their flight course. I miss the fly back at dawn and it probably explains why I periodically have generous amount of large bird guano on my truck.

[ActionJackson017]

Living in Burnaby, we have no shortage of crows here. There is a massive roost not far from where I live and we watch thousands fly back to the roost each evening. I can see why cities and municipalities protect them as they are an omnivore and act as first rate garbage collectors. There is literally not a single piece of organic waste left on the ground more than a few hours so crows play their part in keeping our communities clean and rat free I would say. For what it's worth, I enjoy watching a mother crow and her two young each morning as they hop around my yard looking for worms, beetles and hopefully NOT chafer beetle grubs. They've been daily visitors since early spring and I like seeing them and watching the young ones grow up.

Having said that, I completely agree with Jagermeister's lens on their unfortunate effectiveness at knocking down the song bird population. I feel crow populations have grown too high relative to native song birds here in the City. I'd be curious to see if population counts are maintained and tell the story that crow populations are growing out of lock step with native song bird populations, but it seems pretty obvious they are.

[VFX_man]

I've had a few in my 'hood. They're devastating on the small song birds, robbing the nests of eggs and hatch-lings.

Yea, we were lucky in that the resident Mountain Chickadee pair used the nesting box on our back landing. The close proximity of the box [to us] kept the crows away and 4 of the 5 babies made it. The last one was just too far behind in development and even though we put it back in the box 5 times, it would not stay [the parents kept feeding it in the yard]. Neighbor said the crow got it the next day. :(