crows!!

[legin]

Recently had the misfortune of a bird dropping in to the top of the chimney. We could hear it flapping about and boy did it make a mess. The complete lounge carpet was covered with a fine mist of soot, worse by the hearth and progressively thinner the further it travelled. Kitchen is some 20 feet away and that took 5 mops to get ris of the soot. Don't know what happenned to bird. It never dropped right down so it either died or got out. Kind of reminds me of the time I got a call at work from SWMBO. "Nig their's a blackbird in the dining room". Me thinks Ha, I'll sort this out and enters dining room with pillow case. H'mm, bloody big blackbird, its a bloody crow. Any way he was having none of it and fearing for the bay window and the crow, I managed to chuck a dust sheet over him. Amazing how he calmed right down. Scoops him up and put him on the front lawn. Remove dust sheet, get the obligitory telling off from crow and off he goes. Any way, bought 4 cowls for top of chimneys. Been watching the birds for a week and they are in and out of the top of the pots. Yesterday I decided to evict them. Puts ladder up front and armed with the 4 cowls scrambled up roof and chimmied me way along the ridge. The crows all cleared off as soon as the ladders went up the front. I was in the process off hanging on to three cowls, one in thover hand balancing on ridge and trying to insert said cowl at arms length into the top of one pot when a crow decides to see what i'm up to. Circling approx 10 foot above me head he is taking rather an interest. So were his mates as in the next few minutes there was about a dozen off then all circling over head. I must admit that I was getting rather un easy. Took a look around and there was no quick exit for me. Flapped me arm around and yelled at them and they took flight and sat in a tree, not too far away, where they observed. Me quickleys put cowls in top of pots and scurries back down the roof and back on to terra firma. Me god, me legs were shaking. Do they attack people?

Legin

[Dave Fawthrop]

I was in the |process off hanging on to three cowls, one in thover hand balancing on |ridge and trying to insert said cowl at arms length into the top of one |pot when a crow decides to see what i'm up to. Circling approx 10 foot |above me head he is taking rather an interest. So were his mates as in |the next few minutes there was about a dozen off then all circling over |head. I must admit that I was getting rather un easy.

Get your hard hat out. I was at a nature reserve which supplied hard hats for visitors, some with a long cane taped to it pointing upwards, to deter the birds. I wore my cricketers sun hat which ended up with bird lime on it :-(

[Gordon Henderson]

Stones. You need to stone the crows. Or so I'm told ...

Well someone had to say it.

I have been dive-bombed by small sparrows/robbins/bluetit things in the past, when trying to collect the last of the grapes off my vine and the little birds having other thoughts ...

Gordon

[tony sayer]

In article , legin writes

Get yourself a good .22, they'll so learn to terrorise someone else:-)

[tony sayer]

In article , legin writes

Get yourself a good .22, they'll soon learn to terrorise someone else:-)

[Staffbull]

Yep, works here, shoot a few and the rest get the message for the rest of the year !

[Tony Williams]

My old farmer pal had been a gamekeeper in a pheasantry in his younger days. Gamekeepers do not like crows around stock, but crows get smart and disappear as soon as as they see a man with a gun, and stay away until they see the man walk away. So what these old keepers would do is that two of them would walk to the hide, and one of them would visibly walk back. As far as the crows were concerned it was then safe to return..... One of John's stock cackles was "crows can't count!". :)

Crows are very territorial this time of year, and will mob anything that approaches their future nesting site. A buzzard is a huge bird, something like a 5ft wingspan, and I saw just one crow harrass a buzzard to the ground last week.

[Staffbull]

Yep, the crows hammer the hell out of the buzzards in the back woods here too, ipmressive to watch

[Mary Fisher]

I have some tried and tested recipies for crow, if anyone's interested.

Mary

[Staffbull]

does it taste like chicken or more gamey

[marvelus]

WOuld that require a FAC?

[tony sayer]

In article , marvelus writes

Read all abaht it here;)

[Dave]

It has been my experience that the bigger the bird, the more frightened of you they are.

I have a part time job at a primary school and the pied wagtails will tolerate you at a distance of about 2 M. The magpies to about 6 M The crows will double this distance. However, the rooks will take flight at more than 50 M.

Dave

[Mary Fisher]

Neither.

Mary

>

[Paul Herber]

Possibly more a function of how much each type of bird was eaten in the past.

[noelogara]

I once shot a crow when they were eating my vegetables and several immediately attacked me and I had to run for cover. Its unusual for them to be interested in your chimney pots until mid March especially as it wasnt an existing nest. You were damn lucky that they didnt knock you off the roof.

[tony sayer]

In article , [e-mail] writes

Machine gun ?.. now theres a d-i-y project ;-)...

No doubt their getting bolder all the time.

But whenever theres a pidgin in our backyard one sight of the airgun barrel and he's out-a-here but just down the road you can drive up to them on the side of the road, and they don't even acknowledge your presence!.........

[The Natural Philosopher]

Smart they are..

[Another Dave]

RAOTFL

[Andrew Gabriel]

but not this one...