Discouraging crows?

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poiuytrewq

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Any ideas? My field is black with them every morning recently, it’s like that old horror film 😳
My usual 15 minute before work poo pick is taking forever as they are just scattering poo everywhere. It’s also impossible to get it all and giving me a bad back bent over scraping so much!
 
You’d think. I don’t have one. OH has several and we have a game keeper however my field issues are not top of their agenda atm
 
We have found that since having someone to shoot rabbits, the crow which was sitting on our stable roof, waiting for the swallows to emerge, has disappeared. They recognise guns and avoid them.

I would be quite pleased about the poo scattering, that's the best thing for the land, return the goodness to it.
 
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We've had the same problem for the past year. The poo scraping all through winter was driving me nuts (I started to bring a rake to rake the widely scattered piles together first, before picking them up). It's gotten a bit better over the spring, but they are still there, and still picking the poo apart. Sadly, I'm not aware of a solution either. I keep hoping they'll move on, but so far they haven't.
 
The only thing that helped me is no hard feed for the horses! Since mine are only on balancer and Alfa the crows leave the poo's. Field is still covered with them but their big ugly beaks help drainage. Now if you can stop the bb jackdaw eating my feral cats food, though I think I have stopped it by putting huge lumps of wood on the sleeping bag that makes the cats eating den. The cheeky Jackdaw was pulling the cover away and going in their den while I was in the stable tacking up.

ycbm love those bales and crows are so intelligent they can probably read as well.
 
Really dont know, they're such clever birds. You could make a scarecrow, it wouldn't work, but it'd be fun to do.
I used large plastic windmills to keep the wood pigeons off my grass seed. The first morning, I noticed a fat pigeon had plonked himself in front of one and was enjoying watching the entertainment. They also enjoyed watching lengths of tinsel glistening in the sun.
 
Enjoying as they are to a lot of people, I do have a soft spot for corvids.
I saw one just the other week in the park with a bit of bread in his beak. As I walked past, he put the bread down and covered it with a leaf to hide it. I assume so me or another bird couldn't take it. So intelligent.
 
There's too many around here too and the magpies are killing off the songbird population. People think cats are to blame or eating poisoned insects, but the magpies wrecking birds nests and eating eggs are pretty high on the list. You have to have individual licenses now to cull certain species of birds in the UK so unless your gamekeeper (I like the idea that you have your own personal gamekeeper :D:D:D) has a specific license for crows, he probably won't be able to shoot them on purpose. Not that I know much about shooting, I so happened to listen to Farming Today on R4 a couple of months ago.
 
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tallyho! said:
There's too many around here too and the magpies are killing off the songbird population. People think cats are to blame or eating poisoned insects, but the magpies wrecking birds nests and eating eggs are pretty high on the list. You have to have individual licenses now to cull certain species of birds in the UK so unless your gamekeeper (I like the idea that you have your own personal gamekeeper :D:D:D) has a specific license for crows, he probably won't be able to shoot them on purpose. Not that I know much about shooting, I so happened to listen to Farming Today on R4 a couple of months ago.
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Long term studies have shown that magpies have no detrimental effect on local songbird populations. Quite the opposite. In areas with high magpie populations, there are high populations of small birds too. This is thought to be because where there is a suitable habitat, all bird numbers increase.
I used to live by an old meadow backing onto a nature reserve and I've never seen so many magpies, there were hundreds of them and yet the variety of small birds was incredible. The tree at the end of my garden was like an all year Christmas tree, almost dripping with songbirds. My curiosity prompted me to research why so many tiny birds flourished despite the excessive magpie population and the conclusion was that lack of natural habitat was the major cause, not the magpie.
 
We don't have much of a problem at our yard but when you go to Onley Grounds Equestrian there is a horrendous problem. There are literally hundreds, they seem to roost on the barns then when they take off they make a terrible noise as they swoop over the show jumping arena. So many horses have spooked as they swoop in around head height.
 
dogatemysalad said:
Long term studies have shown that magpies have no detrimental effect on local songbird populations. Quite the opposite. In areas with high magpie populations, there are high populations of small birds too. This is thought to be because where there is a suitable habitat, all bird numbers increase.
I used to live by an old meadow backing onto a nature reserve and I've never seen so many magpies, there were hundreds of them and yet the variety of small birds was incredible. The tree at the end of my garden was like an all year Christmas tree, almost dripping with songbirds. My curiosity prompted me to research why so many tiny birds flourished despite the excessive magpie population and the conclusion was that lack of natural habitat was the major cause, not the magpie.
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I certainly have anecdotal evidence to support this. We have a very healthy corvid population; magpies, rooks, jackdaws and crows and a wide variety of songbirds too, in quite high numbers. I don't want them to eat 'our' songbirds, especially the swallows which nest in our stables but I'm sure you are right about the habitat. There are open fields , moorlands and wooded areas, all within a small (1 mle) radius.
 
dogatemysalad said:
Long term studies have shown that magpies have no detrimental effect on local songbird populations. Quite the opposite. In areas with high magpie populations, there are high populations of small birds too. This is thought to be because where there is a suitable habitat, all bird numbers increase.
I used to live by an old meadow backing onto a nature reserve and I've never seen so many magpies, there were hundreds of them and yet the variety of small birds was incredible. The tree at the end of my garden was like an all year Christmas tree, almost dripping with songbirds. My curiosity prompted me to research why so many tiny birds flourished despite the excessive magpie population and the conclusion was that lack of natural habitat was the major cause, not the magpie.
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Yes but there are also studies to support the opposite view according to the latest cull row. I can’t actually be bothered to get into an argument about this today 😩 but I’d like to see your study... then I’ll show you mine 🤣
 
tallyho! said:
Yes but there are also studies to support the opposite view according to the latest cull row. I can’t actually be bothered to get into an argument about this today 😩 but I’d like to see your study... then I’ll show you mine 🤣
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It's absolutely fine for you to believe what you choose, there is plenty of data from the BTO and RSPB, spanning many decades that would disagree with you, but life's too short to trawl the internet over a pointless debate.
 
I know someone who shoots them and hangs up their bodies in order to discourage others from coming around. That sounds very unpleasant now I've typed it out:eek: I don't know if it even works.

A neighbour of mine uses a Larsen trap. This does work but is cruel imo :(
 
mule said:
I know someone who shoots them and hangs up their bodies in order to discourage others from coming around. That sounds very unpleasant now I've typed it out:eek: I don't know if it even works.

It really does work! Yes it’s a bit grim but they were flying into the barn/indoor stables where I work and eating all the horses food. My boss hung a dead one by the door. Problem solved!
I did think of that but obviously no one way into a field so would I need loads of dead birds hanging everywhere?!! 😳😂

A neighbour of mine uses a Larsen trap. This does work but is cruel imo :(
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Well that’s odd! I did reply Mule!

Yes it works, we have indoor stabling at work and had a huge crow issue with them coming in and eating all the feed. My boss hung one up by the door and problem solved.
Not sure if I’d need loads hung all round the place here though 🤢😂
 
poiuytrewq said:
Well that’s odd! I did reply Mule!

Yes it works, we have indoor stabling at work and had a huge crow issue with them coming in and eating all the feed. My boss hung one up by the door and problem solved.
Not sure if I’d need loads hung all round the place here though 🤢😂
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It would be like a zombie version of the Hitchcock film:p
 
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