I usually think of crows as pretty bad news around the garden and apple tree, but right now they are the enemy of my enemy and that makes them my friend!
I trapped out a couple of squirrels earlier this month but then a youngster decided the territory was safe and unclaimed and moved in. Unfortunately for him, crows have a nest right across the street and they don’t tolerate him. The minute he’s exposed they dive on him, raking his back with their claws. So he hasn’t been hanging around much at all, and no new squirrels have moved in.
Now you have to wait and see if the crows are chasing away the squirrel to keep all the fruit for themselves (kidding, I realize the birds are protecting their nest from a potential egg killer).
I’d rather have the squirrels. I feel like they’re easier to deal with than the crows. Unfortunately, I have both and they seem to be getting along just fine.
My crows seem to have alternative sites to tend to and are more than willing to do so if I shoot one of them and leave the corpse where it falls. I hate to kill such an intelligent animal, but war is war. In 25 years I’ve had to kill two to keep them off my trees. I’m not sure how the word gets around.
We used to have literally, hundreds of crows land on our house every morning years ago. After dealing with copious amounts of faeces on our roof and earlier than wanted wake up calls, I finally decided to shoot one. They never returned. Never.
Without getting into more stories ill just say they are smart, more smart than any I would like to believe.
There is a documentary a murder of crows its worth the watch, They definitely teach there young and will learn like most animals where is safe and where is not. There is also a girl on youtube that has a talking crow
I’ve killed dozens here over 5 yrs. and left them on the lawn until a fox grabbed them. didn’t deter them. they came back in a few days perching in my big pines looking down on my fruit. we have a lot of apparently, dumb crows!
I used to have many crows devastating my fig trees…eating almost every fig. A few years ago I started putting a few corn chips out for them on a daily basis, hoping I could somehow train them to stay out of my trees. A dominant pair took over my yard and prevented any others from coming anywhere near it. In three or four years I have only had to chase the pair out of my fig trees twice…and that was a couple years ago. Now if I could only get them to chase the squirrels.
Admiring the view at a road stop we saw a crow very close in a small tree. He was watching us. I said “I wonder if he would like the peanuts we have int the car”? We walked back to the car in the parking lot where there were 6 or 7 other cars and people walking about. As we opened the car doors we noticed that the crow had left the tree and was walking across the parking lot to our car. He wanted the peanuts?
We have twice had a crow/raven that was friendly. Yes they are super smart. Neither bird survived and I dont blame whoever killed them (it wasnt us) as we all knew very well the trouble that sort of intelligence flying around the neighborhood can cause. Short example. A man working at the waste transfer station was sitting down to lunch when someone arrived with trash. He left his sandwich unprotected and the bird we called major took off with it. Keys, tools, gloves. You name it, the bird wanted it IF you did. No real interest in junk. Lol
Yes they can learn and the wild birds stay out of our Pecan trees, but are confortable in the neighbor’s trees 100 feet away.
