Anybody have to deal with destructive crows?

We live in a semi-rural area of .5 - 5 acre parcels. While it is considered 'rural', it is populated.

We have had what I assume is a family of crows or ravens totaling 3 move into our heavily wooded back yard. They are not there 24/7 but they make very frequent visits. They like the cover of the trees and may be nested back there but I haven't looked for certain. In this dry weather especially, they like our small pond/waterfall. They do feed some from the seeds on the ground from our wild bird feeders but I have never seen them actually on the bird feeders (they are way too big to pull it off I suspect). They also appear to bring in people food scraps from somewhere and use the pond water to soften it up before eating. I suspect somebody around here is not keeping their garbage/food waste contained.

For years we have had a very healthy population of wild birds on our property and have several feeders for them as well as a bird bath and bird houses, but it seems most of them have moved on and I suspect it is because of the crows.

These crows **** all over our vehicles and the side of our house and shop, as well as the camper and of course anything else that happens to be in the poop path. They make an almost non-stop incredible racket of squawking, and they rip the baby birds right out of the bird house when the baby bird gets too close to the opening while peeping for its mother to feed them.

So before I move to the elimination stage I was wondering if anyone has had experience with crows before and in particular did any of the scare tactics work? Do scare crows really work to drive crows out of the area? It seems to me that scare tactics would work but only until the crows figured out that nothing really happens to them, and these crows are really quite smart.

Bonus question: Which makes less noise - a 1.77 standard lead pellet moving at 1000fps out of a gamo whisper rifle, or a .22 short moving at ?fps out of a .22 rifle? Am I right in assuming that if the pellet stays sub-sonic then the clang of the spring action in the rifle would be louder then the sound of the shot breaking? Silencers are a no go in my state btw.

Thanks

I would go with the air rifle because it's not regulated like shooting a firearm in city limits. I don't think scare tactics will work because crows and ravens are some of the smartest non parrot birds there are. I would just aim for headshoots and finish them off.

Bill

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US Marine, 16 years+

I've seen them work for a day or two when they're new. One of the farmers near an uncle of mine has issues with crows. All day every day.... every five minutes a loud BOOM goes off. A crow cannon. Just a loud noise to scare away the crows..... and really annoy my uncle. That only sort of works...

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- The Federalist #46 -

Shooting animals that give you problems? This is a good link for you:

http://www.hsus.org/hsus_field/first...uman_violence/

Here is what i used to do when i lived in the south.Get your self a fence post<a fake bobble head owl,a black rag,and a crow distress call.

Set your fence post near the nest,then place the black rag over the top of the post making it look puffed up then set your fake owl on top of the black rag,use the distress call to bring in the crows and shoot them with the pellit rifle mentioned.

Crows and owls are natural enimies and when the crows see something black being attacked by the owl and with a distess call added they will swarm and swoop.

Best hunting

I'm in your state as well Wayne.
Bottom line, the knob heads in Olympia have screwed us well and truly. Seems at some point, the greenie-weenies managed to get some varieties of "Ravens" to be separated from "Crows" (which is what they all truly are!). Trouble is, in doing so some Raven varieties have been declared protected indigenous.(Accidentally, I'm sure?) And, unless you know genus and their Latin descriptions, it's impossible without a postmortem to tell one from the other? Along with the attendant fines from DNR after greasing the wrong one, being impossible to avoid.
Yes, they're a PITA! And were I doing it, I'd go spring air.
Biggs advice sounds viable!
SHHHH!

Introduce the West Nile Virus and in a year your crow problem will be gone. Here in the midwest the WN virus just about wiped out the crow population and in the last 3 years I didn't see any crows when there use to be a lot of them flying around. It's just been this last spring that they are starting to come back but not in any numbers like they were before. I've only seen about 10 in the last 3 months when before the WN virus I could could look outside at any time and see 10 flying around.
Just kidding about introducing the virus, people can die from it too but it sure devistated the crows around where I live.

Kirmdog

Now that would be incredibly annoying, even in a farming/rural area.

The 1000 fps rating on airguns is mostly smoke and mirrors, they test them with ultra light 5-6 grain pellet to jack op velocities to print on the box, but most magnum airguns are more accurate with heavy 8-10 grain pellets wich will drop the velocites down to 850 fps or less (still more than enough power). For dispatching crows you want a heavy hunting pellet, I recommend the Beeman Crow Magnum hollow point pellet at just over 8 grains it should work well in a magnum springer and is designed for killing crow. There is a Korean company Eun Jin that makes a 16+ grain hunting pellet. Shooting a good heavy hunting pellet from a 1000fps rated springer will be very quiet and yes the spring and rebounding piston will make more noise than the pellet leaving the muzzle, as for a .22 short it depends on the lenght of the barrel as a shorter barrel will be louder than a long one.

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Regards,
Guy-Harold Smith II

I would use the pellet gun after they get stung a little I think they will move on. I have hunted crows for years, they are the sharpest and smartest birds you will find and they learn very fast you might have to give several lessons but they will get the message.

The problem is getting close enough to
shoot them with a air rifle. If you do get close
make every shot count. As already stated crows
are very smart. You may find out they are smarter
than you. Thats not putting you down, Just don't
under estimate them. Don

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"Don't worry be happy"

I once went frog hunting with a .22 rifle using sub sonic ammo. that's the way to go to take care of your crow problem.

if they are crows they kill one and hang it near their spot, if they move repeat process

[QUOTE=Seems at some point, the greenie-weenies managed to get some varieties of "Ravens" to be separated from "Crows" (which is what they all truly are!). Trouble is, in doing so some Raven varieties have been declared protected indigenous.(Accidentally, I'm sure?) And, unless you know genus and their Latin descriptions, it's impossible without a postmortem to tell one from the other?[/QUOTE]

Not accidentally, on purpose, in an international treaty to protect migratory waterfowl, which included, as I recall, the entire family of corvidae, which includes crows, ravens, jays, magpies, Clarks Nutcracker, at the insistence of Mexico, where some species of this family apparently hold some religious or cultural iconic status (science yields to ignorant superstition in wildlife management...), never mind that none of the Mexican birds are migratory in the sense of the treaty. That's why you see hunting seasons and bag limits and other inane restrictions on hunting crows and ravens. Most other family members are regarded as non-game, and afforded the same regulatory protections as songbirds, etc.

I once asked an otherwise zealous Arizona game warden how he distinguished crows, legal to hunt in season, from ravens, never legal to hunt here. (Go figure...) His reply, "Any large, dead, black bird is a crow, as far as I'm concerned."

My marvelous state also has a season on crows. But there are many exceptions that allow you to shoot them out of season. My favorite is "They may be shot out of season if they are creating a disturbance near your home."

Considering their loud raucous "songs" I expect anyone could cite the "disturbance exception" no matter what the time of year.

Do you think they have PhDs working on these hunting regulations?

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You're shy a few manners.

[QUOTE= Do you think they have PhDs working on these hunting regulations? [/QUOTE]

Yep, in many cases "they" do. However, in this case, an international treaty, the "they" is our federal congress, which has to ratify the treaty, however flawed. The "they" at the state level is typically a body such as the "DNR", "Game & Fish", "Parks & Wildlife", or etc., whose members are appointees of the governor, insulated to some degree or another from politics, but never immune to political considerations, such as, here in Arizona, for example, the competing interests of sportsmen who want more elk to hunt, versus ranchers who begrudge the elks' use of publicly-owned forage on public lands the ranchers lease for abusive overgrazing. Sometimes even state legislatures inject their influence, with statutes addressing specific management issues. Line level biologists, etc., are at the bottom of the heirarchy when it comes to these sorts of regulatory decisions, Phd's or not. Usually, Phd = BFD when it comes to political decision making...

This doesn't sound like crows, to me.

In Indiana, you would never get close enough to kill a crow with a pellet gun. Back when I was a kid, you could hardly get close enough with a .22 LR. These days, the crows (they are making something of a comeback here, at this time) do seem less wary of humans, but I still think you would have to encounter a troop of real dummies to plaster one with an air gun.

Anyway, I wonder if we are talking about the same birds? I agree with owls. Just get yourself a couple plastic owls and position them for effect. You may find a lot of your little outdoor pests stay away.

actually I have been a birdwatcher for a while, but if you got close enough to them they were probably Common Grackles, look em up and tell me what you think, they have flouresent black feathers and yellow eyes

Very much. My uncle has been in arguments over this for years. The guy starts them up early in the AM and they run all day. My uncle lives on the other side of the road... and down a little.

Actually once the farmer got really annoyed.. probably because my uncle asked him about it for the second time in a week... and wanted to "throw down" with my uncle. Not smart since the farmer's idea of throwing down was fisticuffs, my uncle's would have been pulling his concealed handgun and telling him to back off. Luckily my uncle calmed him down.. with words.

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- The Federalist #46 -

I would think that scare tactics must work at least some of the time, hence the invention of the classic "scare crow".

Fake moving owls that hoot and make noise are sold at Home Depot et al, just in case crows fear owls. I honestly don't know. I bought one out of the Clearance Bin last year for two dollars. When it senses movement it goes off. Rather amusing. I'm not sure if mine is defective or not, it's head spins totally around ala the demon possessed child in the Exorcist. Since I found it creepy myself, I keep it turned off.

You could also get a half feral cat and let it chase them.

You are talking about three crows here? They will be fairly easy to get rid of with a scare crow. Just move it around and change its clothes on occasion. The birds will leave.

Crows and ravens are readily distinguishable, if you have actually seen both. They make completely different vocalizations and are quite different in size. the beak is the most distinguishing feature and easy to identify. In flight the raven can soar and thus has long flight feathers, the tails are a completely different shape as well.

I hate crows!!!

I have only been moderately successful in my crow hunting...

However, my F-I-L is was a master of the art.
Of course, it may be because he used them from inside the house or car...while sitting at the breakfast table.

There used to be an old man around here...named Stanley, who was quite a character.
He lived over on the Shooting Creek NC side, and drove an MG sportscar IIRC.. His bulldog went with him everywhere. He'd get in trouble now, but the dog loved Crown Royal and I'll never forget that dog lapping it up. Of course, Stanley would have a drink first.

Stanley was best known to stop on the side of the road, pull out a shotgun and blast crows to kingdom come wherever they were. Didn't matter if they were on someone else's land, inside the city limits, or even in a tree beside the courthouse.

No one ever said a word to him about it...I don't know why, or whatever happened to him. It's been...25-30 years since I last heard of him. I think eccentric is the word.

Anyway, I vote for the air rifle. I will recommend shooting them from inside the house or from a car for cover. If you can get a friend or two over with three or four of y'all shooting at them with air rifles at the same time...the problem will be solved.

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Lost it all in a boat accident

Here in Ca the Ravens and Scrub (blue) jays are protected. Since I'm not allowed to kill them, the loud and intimidating bang of the .410 usually scares them away...usually frightens them to death, as I'd never actually shoot one. At longer distances the 22 hornet frightens them to death as well. I don't live anywhere near town.