Corvid Control

After the rush of the season, it’s time for a slightly less frantic pace for Tom Sykes as he takes to his hide to deal with the crows and pigeons
The problem with decoying crows at the end of the season around these parts is finding somewhere to go. The crows haven’t been pressured into feeding anywhere in particularly due to the mild wet winter. Having said that, I’ve had to sit back in frustration on shoot days as flocks of carrions, jackdaws and tooks lift out of the covercrops as the beaters get into position. The large numbers of corvids are there for the easy pickings. The keepers trail wheat out behind the quads for the pheasants, which is an enticing free banquet for a range of bird species, as well as attracting crows in their masses.
I couldn’t put any shooting plan into action during the season, as decoying would cause too much disturbance to pheasants around shoot days. My only option was to go in after the keeper’s day.
Picking a location to shoot was a difficult decision as the estate has a lot of crops to choose from, many of which are followed by large numbers of crows. I chose to improve my chances by setting up in one of the covercrops situated on top of a hill, which overlooked the farm and the rookery. The farm always has birds milling around it, so I hoped it would increase my chances of a shot if I could tempt some of those birds over, too.
This crop, however, has always been a pain, as though it often has birds flowing in and out, it is an awkward one to shoot. It’s a long rectangle-shaped crop on the brow of the hill, with hedges on three sides. On the other long side there is a sheep netting fence. The long hedge is too far down from the brow of the hill to get a good shooting position where the decoys are visible.
I decided to set up on the broken up hedge that overlooked the farm, using a simple net hide with a bit of natural vegetation as concealment. I placed some full-bodied decoys on the fence, as the crop is on top of the hill a lot of the crows fly below the skyline, silhouetting the decoys, and making them stand out really well.

[@mal334455]

Nice..love the hide...prefer them low height

[@bruce6341]

Excellent stuff. You need to do a crow calling vid.

[@WildWeatherWarriors]

I may try and do a video guide on how to call crows for you. I have always mouth called crows as I find its the best way. It can be a bit hard on the old voice box depending on how raspy you do it though! The best advice I can give for now is to simply shout 'mark' as it gives the right start and finish to the call. Simply change the length and pitch to produce different sounds. I hope that helps and keep an eye out for a calling demonstration video!

[@bruce6341]

I will do. Look forward to future videos. An in depth hide building and decoy pattern set up would be good also.

[@capelchristian1651]

C est nul cette video on voit un type qui tire qui parle c est tout