doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com OT - Any crow hunters here?

King, you've never seen an aerial performance until you cut a hay field and are literally swarmed with purple martins and barn swallows. They hear the equipment running and they know it stirs up the bugs hiding in the fields. Half the time I wind up screwing up my wind rows because I'm distracted by the these two species that are simply incredible flyers. At times I'm surrounded by several dozen birds. A few them come close enough on their pass that I could have reached out and grabbed them if I wanted to.

Ok. Reminds me of a time I and a close friend were swimming out past the breakers on a local beach on a warm September day. A flock (swarm?) of pelicans were diving all around us for fish. They would circle 10 to 30 or so feet over us then suddenly dive and plunge under water. There were probably 25 of them.
We never could see the fish around us but it must have been a bunch of sardines or anchovies or some other bait fish. It was an amazing experience. Jake

Thanks for your posts. Your words are encouraging. The barn and cliff swallows began disappearing around here eight-10 years ago. I haven't seen a barn swallow for years. Consider yourselves blessed with those birds.

Well I saw the first crow of the year in Winnipeg yesterday.
Our crow population was hard hit by West Nile, you could tell because of the dead crows beside the road not showing vehicle strike trauma. That is a rare thing anyway, as someone pointed out. Same with coyotes, a run-over coyite on the road is a rare sight.
I was walking with my wife last year in an old arbetoreum, (tree museum) when she noticed a kestrel laying in its back, dying. Do raptors get West Nile disease?
Mike

In my yard and the neighbors here in Torrance, the crows have taken over. The dove and pigeons are gone. Some magpies are still around occasionally and they chase the crows off best they can.

Aren't crows protected in Mexico and revered in folklore there? I understand one of the reasons that we have "limited" crow seasons in the USA is because Mexico wanted to decimate the waterfowl poulation - at least as a bargaining chip - because they felt waterfowl committed crop depredation and generally interfered with the rural farming. I believe, perhaps because having read an old article in a DU magazine, this crow restriction became part of the international treaty with Canada, Mexico, and the USA re migratory birds.

Perhaps that's why you have so many crows in CA? I understand the border is a bit porous...

Every year a pair of swallows tries to build a nest under the roof of my front porch. Their mud/salvia mixture is almost as strong as cement. Sadly, I have to chase them away for obvious reasons. My stable gets several nesting pairs. I'm delighted to have them around since they are not only admirable flyers, but they eat a ton of insects.