Crow culling

[sundaymorningstaple]

I can vouch for the divebombing by our local blackfeathered friends here. While the bugger didn't connect, as noted by the National Geographic News article that I linked, they do seem to like a bald head to aim for! This happened when I was living in Seletar!

[missis]

I can vouch for the divebombing by our local blackfeathered friends here. While the bugger didn't connect, as noted by the National Geographic News article that I linked, they do seem to like a bald head to aim for! This happened when I was living in Seletar!

I personally know of 2 people who had their black hair pulled hard by crows (in Tokyo) and a small child had a sandwich taken out of his hand. There used to be signs up in some places warning people to be careful.
I wonder why they single out crows as opposed to, say, pigeons? known to carry diseases and generally a pain. Though I must agree that there should be some other way of dealing with the things.

[Asian_Geekette]

I can vouch for the divebombing by our local blackfeathered friends here. While the bugger didn't connect, as noted by the National Geographic News article that I linked, they do seem to like a bald head to aim for! This happened when I was living in Seletar!

@sms:
Yikes! I'm sorry to hear this. What happened? Did they leave a nasty scar on your head?

[sundaymorningstaple]

He didn't connect! But not for want of trying!

[JR8]

Intesting points:-

Well I never re: their aggression. Either the House Crow is more aggresive than the 'Euro-crow', or it has become urbanised and is simply no longer afraid of humans (in fact quite the opposite it seems!).

I don't see any physical difference between local and euro-crows. In fact I thought House Crows had grey heads. Anyway...

Yup, pigeons spread disease. Salmonella if I recall correctly. They dealt with the famous flock in Trafalgar Square London a few years back by closing down the people who sold bags of wheat to feed them with, and the council instead fed them with wheat impregnated (excuse the pun) with chemicals that stopped them reproducing. It didn't take long for all to go.

There is a parallel example of a non-native species in the UK. The Indian ring-necked parakeet. It is not known how it arrived (theories: escaped from zoo/s, escaped from domestic captivity), but it has been around since the 1960's. The numbers are now burgeoning to the extent that their appetites are harming native species' ability to survive. They were recognised as an indiginous species in c. mid-90's. Most live in the S-E of England, particularly SE/SW London. But you would also be hard-pressed to go for a walk in London'd Hyde Park and not see (or hear) some.

I believe they too are being culled, but this has only started very recently, and I do not know how it is carried out...

[k1w1]

I think monkeys are a far bigger problem. Mostly because I had one turn up in my lounge yesterday. Scared the living shit outta me. My screaming scared the living shit outta him.

[JR8]

I think monkeys are a far bigger problem. Mostly because I had one turn up in my lounge yesterday. Scared the living shit outta me. My screaming scared the living shit outta him.

Genuine LOL Spit-out-me Heiny-onto-the-keyboard-moment!!!!!

[ozchick]

This just happened in our neighbourhood tonight.

Does anyone know why they do it? Poor bloody crows!

A bloke got out of a Certis 'Crow culling' van lights a-flashing, blew a tree in front of our condo to pieces, then picked up the dead birds and drove off.

[Do SGns sell them as a 'strengthener' for the 'weaker' males or something, otherwise what the heck are they doing?]

p.s. What shotgun rounds might they be using to shoot into the sky within 10m of homes and people? The lasting impression was that they got in, bam bam bam, a SWAT assault on a couple of harmless birds in a tree, 30 seconds, got out, and it was over in a minute. Weird, and very uncool.

I'm absolutely gobsmacked that shotguns can be used in a public place here- no matter who the authorised shooter is. What THE ?!

[BigSis]

I've never seen them attacking people but I did see a weird incident once where I was walking along a quiet road here and crows came flying up the road and one had a little bird squawking in fright (in its beak, or claws, it was so fast I couldn't see) but they flew a bit further up and it dropped the bird (accidentally I assume) which immediately hopped into a bush to escape and the crows all gathered around the bush waiting for it to come out.

As I walked past I shooed them away and hopefully saved the small bird (it was a sparrow or one of those small, sparrow-sized birds we get here) - I didn't know that crows were that nasty until I saw that, but I suppose a group of them isn't called a murder of crows for nothing!

[JR8]

'Nature red in tooth and claw'.

That's not so shocking really compared to what a fox can do... not just killing for food, but just wanting to slay of anything it can reach (if a fox gets into a henhouse, it won't just kill one hen and eat it, it will kill every single hen (dozens?), and then eat just one).

Interesting that a group of crows waited at the said bush... as mentioned, they are highly intelligent birds (although probably not for trying to attack SMS's pate! ). Murder as the collective noun is indeed interesting, it would be fascinating to know the derivation thereof.

[sundaymorningstaple]

Actually, the best weapon for killing crows is exactly what they use. Shotguns with birdshot. I'd let you get a 100 meters away from me and let you shoot at me with a shotgun with birdshot in it all day long and laugh at you while you did it.

The contents of the shell's range will depend generally on what shot size. There is actually a simple formula to work out the maximum range of shotgun pellets by using the pellet size.

basically the smaller the pellet the less distance it will travel since as spheres get smaller their ballistic coefficient reduces. In other words their ability to maintain velocity while undergoing air resistance gets less and they lose speed faster.

A shotgun solid slug is separate from the formula and would go over 1500yards depending on type I would say, if fired at 40degrees elevation or so.

Larger shotsizes like buckshot might make 1000 yards with the correct elevation.

Birdshot and light hunting sizes no.2 or no.5 shot I think will make it a couple hundred yards at maximum elevation from memory.

and the light stuff down to like no.9 or the 'dust sizes' only a couple hundred feet.

This is not the effective range of the shotgun for hunting by the way. The effective ranges of the shotgun are generally 20-50 times less than these ranges. Around 50-60 yards or so with shotloads.

The ranges above are maximums for if you fired the shotgun up at a maximum elevation and how far the luckiest pellet would go before it was skidding along the ground.

[JR8]

Interesting. In the UK something like #6 would have been your average load.



That's before they essentially banned everyone from owning guns, and, er, hey look handgun crime went off the chart.

...(Swear words will follow if I don't chill)... chill..... deep breath...

[sundaymorningstaple]

Interesting. In the UK something like #6 would have been your average load.



That's before they essentially banned everyone from owning guns, and, er, hey look handgun crime went off the chart.

...(Swear words will follow if I don't chill)... chill..... deep breath...

Yeah, what can I say. As Sam Setta said forty years ago, "If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns" Sorry, but I gotta say thank Dog for the NRA. I have a arsenal by your standards, back on my farm in Maryland. At last count I believe there are 23 rifles & shotguns (the majority are shotguns) and 7 pistols of varying calibers ranging from .22 to a Model 1911 Colt Military Issue 45. I am an avid duck, goose, turkey & deer hunter and I've only ever shot and killed one man at close range. (with a double barreled sawed-off shotgun provided to me by the Maryland State Police) That was in November 1968 about 11 months after I returned from the NAM and around 4 months after my Active Duty discharge from the army.

Chill man, chill. Be thankful that there are those of us who aren't criminally inclined and aren't afraid of guns for protection and/or hunting for the table (with game, I eat what I kill - I don't hunt for trophy).

[Plavt]

I can vouch for the divebombing by our local blackfeathered friends here. While the bugger didn't connect, as noted by the National Geographic News article that I linked, they do seem to like a bald head to aim for! This happened when I was living in Seletar!

Maybe it was the re-incarnation of one our trolls.

[Plavt]

I think monkeys are a far bigger problem. Mostly because I had one turn up in my lounge yesterday. Scared the living shit outta me. My screaming scared the living shit outta him.

......but if I remember rightly your a school teacher.....should be used to monkeys by now (little monkeys of course)..........