An afternoon on the crows

[dave1372 83]

Whilst out foxing last week on one of my permissions the farmer had a moan about the number of crows going about, so to keep him happy I said I would pop down at the weekend. In all fairness I hadn't been down to do his crows for months so I dusted down the shotty this morning and headed down after lunch. As I drove along the track I could see a load of crows all sitting on the fence posts by the open-sided barn where I was headed so I stopped the motor and loaded the shotty and put the passenger window down. As I turned upto the barn I let the motor coast along slowly knowing that the crows wouldn't fly off until it stopped and as soon as the car came in line with the fenceline I took my shot and got 3 crows which was a pleasant start as I could use them for decoys.

 

The pic resizer has made this pic smaller than I meant, you can just make out the crows sitting in front of the barn just to the right if you use magnifying glass !

 

 

 

I parked up and set out my decoys and then sat and waited but it was quite windy and everything that flew past seemed to be doing a 100mph ! I managed to get bag another few in front of the barn but was getting increasingly annoyed as I wanted to get a decent bag for my afternoon. I decided to try a different tactic and moved out of the barn and placed myself between a couple of trailers which I had noticed seem to be under the flight path.

 

 

I soon started getting a few and placed them in the field as decoys and every 10 minutes or so they kept coming.

 

 

I ended with about 45 which I was pleased about, just a shame I couldn't get the ones that landed on the roof of the barn lol !

 

[stubby 175]

nice write up and pictures, I have one permission plagued with magpies, Ive tried everything, but the buggers wont be fooled, now I have my FAC, I'll try decoying them down at a further distance

[Treacle Trackpad 6]

nice write up and pictures, I have one permission plagued with magpies, Ive tried everything, but the buggers wont be fooled, now I have my FAC, I'll try decoying them down at a further distance

Nothing better than getting your own back on the wiley magpie by getting him from a distance. Very satisfying after being given the run around for years