Cool Program

[BarryBobPosthole]

I watched a very cool program on 'Nature' on PBS last night. It is called 'A Murder of Crows'.

First off, I've always considered crows vermin. I've killed them by the thousands, literally. My first war with the crows was instigated by my grandma when I was 12 or 13, who'd pay me a nickel for every crow I'd kill that was eating her pecans. One of my hideouts was their outdoor john, but only for short periods of time of course. It wasn't too pleasant in there. That's where I learned about lookouts and how quickly those birds got 'eddicated'. Later on in life, I killed them in my cousin's corn field (sweet corn, not the Iowa kind of corn field) by the hundreds. He'd wounded a crow once, put it in a cage until it recovered, and then we'd stake it out on a perch and the crows would come in and in and in and we'd shoot the shit out of them. Then, later in life, my buddy Mallard got an electronic call, the first of it's find I'd ever seen and about the size of an old record player, and you couldn't keep the crows off of you. IT was fun shooting and we figured we were doing a good deed. That's just how everyone I know views crows.

After seeing this deal last night, I'm not sure I'd go do that again. Not that I'd take any of it back, but man these are some very smart animals. It just gets harder and harder for me to justify killing something I'm not going to put on the table. and I ain't gonna eat a nasty ass crow.

anyway, check this show out if you getthe chance. I knew they were smart, but no idea they were THIS smart.
BKB

[DeputyDog]

I saw it too. I was amazed at how they recognized faces and passed it on to their offspring. Then watching them go through a 3 step process using tools to get to the food was unreal. I never knew that they were so smart. Definitely worth watching.

[BarryBobPosthole]

My Mom told me she had a pet crow when she was a kid that could talk. She said they split its tongue when it was young. I'm not so sure that the tongue splitting was necessary, but she said the crow was very tame.
BKB

[Gunther]

Corvids is smart and yes they deserve to live more than pigeons.

That being said if they gets in my corn I is shooting the shit out of 'em.

[LJ3]

Me and a couple buddies learned allllll about the role of the scout crows and what happens when you shoot those fuckers first. I've never been scared of crows but I sure as hell was on THAT day. After we ran out of shells, that is... All I could think was "Hitchcock, you magnificent bastard!"

[BarryBobPosthole]

I swear, if you go on a crow hunt you will get shots regularly that you only get once in a great while in upland game bird hunting. Even the famed 'shooting straight up' shot featured in those yuppie ads for wingshooting schools.

And they hate hootie owls. don't know why, and I've heard several legends why, but they absolutely will go out of their way to make an owl's day miserable.

BKB

[Thumper]

Well, I turned on the tv earlier to find the Daytona race, but I don't get the "Speed Channel". I was flipping through to see if I might pick it up on some other station and what do I run across? "A Murder of Crows"! I just finished watching it. The same as youse dufes ... I've shot my fair share of crows and had a lot of fun with it. I also learned the hard way about their "look-outs". I've always known crows were smart birds, but I really had no clue HOW smart until today. Interesting program. Makes me feel a bit guilty about my "misguided youth" .... well, maybe not THAT guilty ... but it was an eye-opener. ;)

[Niner]

There's a pair of Barred Owls that live in the woodlot behind my place. They USED to live in an old hollow hickory tree in my backyard...but it fell down a few years ago.

Anyway....I've heard the crows giving them fits on several occasions.

My grandpa used to kill the heck outta the crows on his place back in....it guess it was the 60's/70's that I remember. He had an old single barrel .410 and would hang out in his barn, which was right under the biggest tree (which was HUGE). His favorite trick was to kill one, then hang it up in the tree by one of its feet. He said that cured them from coming to that tree for a while. I sure do miss ol' gramps. He passed back when I was in the Navy.

[Buckrub]

Murder of Crows.
Pride of Lions.
Gaggle of Geese.
Flock of Chickens.
on and on.
Cool names. Wonder who thunked 'em up.

Watched two crows this year harass the living doo doo out of a poor old hawk, in a cutover. They did it for fun, no other reason. When the hawk finally stood his ground (shaking like a little girl) perched on a solitary low limb, they flew off, laughing all the way.

I've also seen a crow 'trial' where they killed one of their own. Most amazing thing I've seen in the woods.

But I do with they'd shut up. Noisy black worthless things, they are.

[BarryBobPosthole]

They will bust your ass and but good. They'll also bust other stuff too and that's handy sometimes. I always figured if I fooled a crow, then I must be hid pretty good.

BKB

[Captain]

Well I ain't gonna watch that show..... Cause I like to call and shoot them too much to learn to respect them,
From what you are saying this program might make me want to stop callin and shootin' em.
I do t want to miss out on that much fun.
Take Care, Captain

Sent from my iPhone using Forum Runner

[BarryBobPosthole]

Captain, if I had a shotgun in my hand and a crow showed his face I'd likely bust his butt. Its just a normal reaction.

The show talks about how most humans have that attitude about crows.

Haha, I remember in Yellowknife they have owl statues on the corners of a lot of the buildings to discourage the ravens. The ravens sit on their heads and shit on them.

BKB