My home has become 'Crow Central' Why?

[MadamPoofyBrow]

Howdy, I am reviving this thread as I need Help!

When I started this back in July 2014 it was because I had a heap of Crows hanging around and I was concerned about them and my little banties and chicks.

It was suggested “Your girls will get used to them soon enough” and they did .. the Crows do not seem to bother them at all. Me, on the other hand, they are driving me insane!

OK, I do not have the numbers now that I had back then but there is one pair who have moved into my front tree and occasionally friends of theirs drop by for a visit.

I know Crows deter Hawks but Hawks are not really a problem here.

I was talking to my neighbour about them the other day and she says it could be her fault because she feeds the wild parrots bread and honey every afternoon and this pair of Crows are always there and steal some.

Well, that explains, the large chunks of bread I keep finding floating in my fish ponds!

Anyways, these Crows do not shut up! I work from home, I am on the phone to clients and they are constantly asking “what is that noise?” … that noise is the Crows!

Just now I had one sitting right at my front door … taking to his mate at my front window but through the house … my ears are still ringing!

They sit outside the bedroom window at the crack of dawn and make enough noise to wake the whole house.

The section of my driveway which is under the tree they like to sleep in is white with Crow poop.

They have taken to stealing stuff from under our gazebo … I keep finding stuff which should be sitting on a shelf dropped all over the garden. They are constantly stealing our BBQ cleaner. They knock over the oil bottles next to the BBQ and are frequently standing either on the BBQ or the table under the gazebo.

I put watermelon out for the girls on the weekend and spent the majority of the day trying to keep the Crows off it.

I rescued a juvenile Turtle Dove from a Crow that was trying to eat it alive!

I mean these Crows no harm but I need something to deter them??

Earlier posts in this thread mention that they remember faces and I am definitely on their hit list now because I chase them with the broom, shoot at them with the water pistol, run around waving my arms etc!

No matter what I do, they just look at me and teasingly hop just out of reach!

They do not have access to the chicken feed because the run is covered so I do not believe it is the chickens attracting them but if I were to call someone to maybe help me, the first thing they will probably do is blame the chickens. "Want to get rid of the Crows? Get rid of the chickens!"

I am so jealous! I WANT crows so bad! Hawks are awful here, and I absolutely love crows...
I have done extensive research on them. And yes, they remember faces. Not only do you chase them with the broom, but you stole their turtle dove lunch...they may be at this point TRYING to make you mad, lol! They're very smart birds...
As to getting rid of them, yeah it's probably partly thanks to the chickens. But, that can't be helped. So, I'd try to get them to go somewhere else by offering them food on the OTHER side of the yard or something.
They're gonna be pretty hard to get rid of now that they know you have what they want, and I don't support shooting crows, so I'm out of ideas. Good luck with them, and tell them to come over to my place

 

[MadamPoofyBrow]

Oh yes, and meant to ad...They will tell their children about you. You've got years of crow revenge coming if you can't get them to leave. If it were, me I'd try to make friends. Sounds weird, but if you feed them and feed them cheese puffs and french fries, they'll remember that more than the broom and stolen lunch...
They can be very friendly and fun to have around if you make friends with them. If not, and you can't get them to leave, it will come back to haunt you. While they're awesome, these birds are seriously creepy...they'll never let you live it down. They'll tell their family, friends, and children for generations. Encouraging, I know

 

[Teila]

Tee hee MadamPoofyBrow I have a box which should hold two Crows … expect a delivery shortly!

Yep, I do believe that I am on their hit list!

As my neighbour feeds them “on the other side of the yard”, I am concerned about encouraging them by actually giving them food.

I definitely appreciate your thoughts and input and making friends with them may be an option but if I make friends with them, they are likely to have babies soon as they appear to be a couple and the babies are going to hang around who in turn might bring in more friends?

Having experienced a mite infestation from a visiting Bush Turkey, I worry about mites and other ‘nasties’ they may bring with them?

If the consensus is ‘we make peace’ I am happy to do that and yes, they may be fun to have around but would it stay at just them?

Hurting them is definitely not an option for me ... I couldn't do that.

 

[MadamPoofyBrow]

Oh yeah...mites could be a problem. And they will definitely bring in more friends. Crows are so hard, because if you make friends with them they'll bring you more friends. If you make enemies, they'll never leave you alone because they want revenge.
I don't know how to fix the problem...why'd they have to be so smart!?!?
Everyone thinks I'm so weird cause I absolutely love crows and very few people share my feelings. I've been trying to attract them, but I guess they don't like woods and we live right in the middle of ten acres of solid trees

I should start a club called 'save the crows!' but there'd only be like two members, lol!
Maybe you should plant trees everywhere, and they'd just leave cause they seem to like more open spaces? I know, I'm full of doable solutions, lol!

 

[MadamPoofyBrow]

Oh but wait, I have an idea! Make a SCARECROW!!!!! Or like five of them and steak them out around your house!
No crows harmed, no more crows (at least not as close) and everyones happy! If it would work...

 

[Teila]

Hhhhm, OK, so at the risk of inviting more evil friends bearing unwanted nasties, befriending is now off the table.

As mentioned before, hurting them is also off the table.

This leaves me with one option, convincing them that my garden is not the coolest place to live … boxing them up and sending them to MadamPoofyBrow is definitely at the top of my options list at the moment and a scarecrow could be another possibility but not sure it will look good in the garden and if a crazy woman with a water pistol and broom is not scaring them, it would have to be one uuuugly looking scarecrow .. lol

Other options will be appreciated?

PS: my garden ………….

 

[MadamPoofyBrow]

Wow, you have a cool garden!
And that's true, if they're not scared of you, they wouldn't be scared of a scarecrow unless it was absolutely HORRIFYING, lol!

I will be thinking of a humane way to make your garden seem un-cool and let you know what I come up with!

Oh, and weird request, do you have any pics of the wild parrots? We raise parakeets and I think it would be so awesome to live where there are wild ones!

 

[Teila]

Thank you MadamPoofyBrow, I spend a lot of time in the garden and enjoy the results.

Today I purchased a couple of Chinese Lanterns and a Whirly-thing which I managed to get to hang from their branch in the front tree. They may get used to it but for now it might make them think about roosting elsewhere.

I also purchased a couple of colourful windmills and placed them under the gazebo with another Chinese Lantern.

Lastly, I made a very long, light weight pole with which I can reach up into their tree. If they do attempt to roost, I will chase them off.

They already hate me so I probably cannot make it any worse than it already is

These little guys (Lorikeets) are feeding in my tree (Sorry, I lost the original image and had to copy from another thread on which I had posted it)



And this little one (Turtle Dove) was nesting near our gazebo before the Crows got her and her chicks

:

 

[MadamPoofyBrow]

That is sooooooooo cool! It would be so amazing to have this win the backyard! That's it, I'm moving to Australia, lol!
And that's so sad about the turtle dove! Those rotten crows!
And hopefully your new garden decor will make them wary for awhile!

 

[Teila]

So, I may have scored a small win in the War on Crows.

The new ‘decorations’ appear to have improved things a little.

One Crow thought he might tempt his luck at roost time but I used the long pole to convince him to sleep elsewhere. He actually looked a bit shocked that I could reach him

It is a long piece of metal conduit with a circular timber batten attached; light weight, flexible and long enough that I can reach way into the trees.

This morning was the quietest the neighbourhood has been for a long time; I can hear Crows but they are a long way off from here.

I am not kidding myself into thinking that I have won and I am sure that once they get used to the new ‘decorations’ they will be back but that is when I bring out the big guns … Plan B:

Edited to Add: DO NOT ORDER FROM http://www.crowaway.com.au/ but, in fact, order from http://www.crowbegone.com/

Everything I read about the CD yesterday was positive and I did not read one comment in the negative. With a 30 Day Money Back guarantee I think it is worth a try if they return.

Edited to Add: I went ahead and ordered the CD; will let you know if it works.