meath crows

dicky82

lads i was working in kilmessin today, as the light was fading the crows were coming into roost. it was really spectacular to see at my guess well over a thousand crows. they were roosting in some woods near the house i was working in, the woman said they always come in to the same wood every evening.
the thing is every tree i could see in the wood packed with crows, all the power lines around the place were packed with crows and trees in the fields were packed with crows. i know there are a few royals on here, so im sure if yas took a spin to kilmessin before dark to have a look and then maybe knock on a few doors ya could have some real good sport down there.

daithi55

i think its illegal shoot crow were they roost at night or around where they roost at night as its so easy to shoot them

dicky82

if it is illeagle then disregard, but i was sure there was lads talking bout doing this in the past but im open to correction.
anyway even just to see that many crows in the sky at one time its worth a spin over.

Birdnuts

Apparently the roost around Slane Castle is one of the biggest in the country:)

Eddie B

daithi55 wrote: »

i think its illegal shoot crow were they roost at night or around where they roost at night as its so easy to shoot them

Don't know where ya heard that one!
As far as i know its perfectly legal to shoot crows at dusk and it's a great method of vermin controll!;)

jap gt

i thought its only legal to shoot crows that are doing damage to crop etc

johnner1

jap gt wrote: »

i thought its only legal to shoot crows that are doing damage to crop etc

so are you saying you have to catch them in the act (easier said then done),and you cant shoot them before or after they do the damage

Birdnuts

johnner1 wrote: »

so are you saying you have to catch them in the act (easier said then done),and you cant shoot them before or after they do the damage

The problems with rooks/jackdaws tend to be concentrated around harvest time and that is when I help out a few of the local farmers in return for shooting rights on their land later in the year. Other then that I tend to focus on mags and hoodies which to be honest are alot more problematic on most levels then the other corvid species:)

jap gt

johnner1 wrote: »

so are you saying you have to catch them in the act (easier said then done),and you cant shoot them before or after they do the damage

i didnt make up the law.... but im fairly sure they can only be shot to protect crop damage

http://www.npws.ie/en/WildlifePlanningtheLaw/Legislation/BirdsDirectivederogations/

Bizzum

Occasionally the Farmers Journal publish the relevant laws, my understanding of it is exactly as Jap gt says.

jap gt

Bizzum wrote: »

Occasionally the Farmers Journal publish the relevant laws, my understanding of it is exactly as Jap gt says.

it changes every couple of months, it was talked about on another forum recently thats the only reason i know about it

tfox

dicky82 wrote: »

lads i was working in kilmessin today, as the light was fading the crows were coming into roost. it was really spectacular to see at my guess well over a thousand crows. they were roosting in some woods near the house i was working in, the woman said they always come in to the same wood every evening.
the thing is every tree i could see in the wood packed with crows, all the power lines around the place were packed with crows and trees in the fields were packed with crows. i know there are a few royals on here, so im sure if yas took a spin to kilmessin before dark to have a look and then maybe knock on a few doors ya could have some real good sport down there.

A friend of mine has a driven shoot run on there farm outside Kilmessan and he gets a family day every year which I'm lucky to be invited to. Last year we had the usual enjoyable day, not as many birds as year before but all good fun !! After our meal we were all chatting away when our host said come on out lads the crows are coming in.

We all grabbed our guns, stuffed a handful of cartridges in our pockets and lined out along the edge of a big old wood. I have to say I had as much fun and sport after those crows than I did shooting at driven pheasants that day !!

daithi55

Eddie B wrote: »

Don't know where ya heard that one!
As far as i know its perfectly legal to shoot crows at dusk and it's a great method of vermin controll!;)

as i said i think
id prefer not to shoot them just incase

and i didnt say its illegal shoot them at dusk
i said it think its illegal shoot them where they roost

dicky82

ok this point probably has no relevence but il bring it up anyway.
if foxes and rabbits are classed as vermin, and both can be hunted below ground (ferrets and terriers) which is their 'roost' so to speak, then why is there a prohibition on shooting crows (also classed as vermin) coming into roost?
im by no means suggesting that we blow them of their perches but surely a well positioned gun on the flight path to a roost site could take many a crow on the wing. sure these crows are causing a problem for a farmer somewhere?
anyway just my thoughts.