BIrd, I inherited a crow call when I was about 12-13 and went through my crow hunter phase. My school teacher aunt helped me part time. She was pretty decent with a shotgun. Together we didn't ammount to a hill of beans. We shot at but never dropped a crow. When alone I would hide under drooping lower limbs of a tree and use the call but if I was hid enough to be sufficiently concealed to not be seen by the sharp eyed crows then I was unable to get free to take a shot in time before they would "beat wing" and escape.
Our intent was to shoot one to cook just so we could say we ate crow. Those are some smart birds. They can tell the difference between a gun and a hoe or stick and stay out of shotgun range. In later years I did reach out and "touch" a few from 200-300 yds with my 22-250 which makes for a crow explosion with feathers flying out in a great cloud.
Owls make good decoys for crows as the crows will mob an owl they find in their territory. Our attack trained mockingbirds have cleared several acres around out back yard of crows, owls, and hawks. The mockingbirds take turns harassing a crow till they have succeeded in runing it away. Same story for hawks, owls, coyote, bobcat, etc. I have seen the mockingbirds "dive bomb" or generally distress just about everything on 4 legs except cattle and rabbits near our back yard. I have not seen them tangle with any smaller hawks or falcons which can turn pretty tight and handle themselves pretty well but the red tails and other larger hawks get no mercy.
[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
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