Magpie and hooded crows in cage?

fleabag

Hello,
For the past couple of weeks I've seen a magpie in a cage in a field near where I walk. There's always food and water for it and it seems quite happy - it was really bedraggled looking when I first saw it. There were 2 empty cages on either side of it, one was spring loaded and baited with meat.

Today I walked by and there are now 2 hooded crows, both full grown, one on either side of the magpie. All the cages are separate though linked. None of the birds seem unduly concerned but do get upset if I get too close.

There is a gun club in the area and I was wondering if they're something to do with that? If not, does anyone have any idea what they could be there for - surely not pets and if someone wants to catch carrion eaters for some reason, why keep them once caught?

Any thoughts, ideas would be appreciated. Thanks.

magicbastarder

it's a trap, pure and simple. the magpie is left in the centre to attract other magpies, which are then trapped.
obviously in this case, it's attracted crows rather than magpies. they'll almost certainly be dispatched when the owner of the trap arrives.

fleabag

Crap! Is this legal? Hardly seems worth it considering the numbers of maggies and crows out there ...

magicbastarder

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=72292585

fleabag

Thanks for the info - didn't mean it to sound like I didn't believe you by the way. Interesting links, thanks. Can see that maggies and crows can be a nuisance but still feel sorry for them in the cage.

V Bull

Sounds like a Larsen Trap in use....see link below..

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055972023

Very common way for predator control here in Ireland..

johngalway

FYI, follow the links on the link below:

http://www.npws.ie/legislationandconventions/irishlaw/eubirdsdirectivederogations/

I trap both species to reduce their numbers generally.

I'm a sheep farmer and if a ewe goes on her back, or comes down with a sudden illness (which happens) greycrows will take advantage of this to peck their eyes out, peck open their guts and anus - while the ewe is still alive. Often, a sheep which goes down with illness is quite treatable, but when the crows get her, they maim.

I had an old ewe that went on her back this Spring. Greycrows damaged one of her eyes, pecked a hole right through to her jawbone, and pulled open the fleshy part on the underside of her tail - and she's lucky.

We mostly keep Blackface sheep which have horns, in Connemara there are lots of stone walls. A young ewe lambs horns are skinny and flexible. One of my Dads lambs pushed her head into a gap in a wall - lambs are curious creatures prone to getting into mischief. As you'd expect, the horns moved closer together with it's head being forced farther into the gap in the wall. The lamb got stuck. The next day when Dad was doing his rounds of the farm, which is quite fragmented so you can't tour around it multiple times per day - there were a number of greycrows perched on the top of the wall where the lamb was stuck. They had peck their way into her back, leaving multiple wounds. The lamb was treated and eventually recovered.

One Spring during lambing one of my ewes had twins. But, the ewe just came along with one quite ordinary looking lamb. Seeing as she was big as a house prior to lambing I was suspicious, but couldn't find the second lamb anywhere. Left her where she was for a few hours to see if she'd pick up the other lamb I suspected was about. Came back in the evening, nope, still one lamb. So I walked every inch of the place, top to bottom, looking behind every rock and bush. Eventually found the little lamb in the ruin of an old stone building (no roof). Greycrows had ripped out 3/4's of his tongue. In hindsight I should have put him down then and there but persevered and he lived, but never done much good due to not being able to eat or cud properly, constantly wet and green around the mouth, a 1/4 length tongue makes thing difficult.

Magpies have less ability as they're much smaller than the greycrows, but they will go for eyes, and they will contribute to and worsen areas damaged by greycrows once the greycrow has opened the animal.

I prefer the fox, he will come and leave me with a loss. The crow will come and leave me with a loss, or a loss and a patient.

It's quite impressive just how quickly a greycrow spots an animal in distress.

Mothman

Moved from Nature & Birdwatching

fleabag

That looks like just the kind of trp.

Thanks to all for the information - it's certainly an eye-opener - no pun intended. The attacks by the hooded crows are gruesome. Reminds me of a cow that died up the field from where I used to live in Kerry and within hours the eyes were pecked through. I felt sorry for the birds at first but now I'm reassessing ....

session savage

Fair play to you fleabag for your open mindedness.
Too often people just feel sorry for the animals we shoot and dont care about the why.
What we do is important for the countryside.

PippaSpaniel

One of our gun club members had a new larsen trap stolen from a farmers land that we shoot and release game on. Its so annoying to think someone would come along and steal or destroy the trap which had a gun club sign on it:mad:. They generally don,t know what it is or what purpose it serves. The farmer was worried that someone would come onto his land and take something:(

fodda

Could have been another shooter?

Terrier

On Springwatch on BBC2 last night they explained the whole Magpie\crow\larsen trap issue. Was done very well for what I taught would be extremely negitive towards trapping.
Showed larsen traps how they work and expalined why certain groups believe it works.
They even admitted that the RSPB carry out trapping on reserves where certain species numbers are low.

The previous night they even had a Jay on camera pulling a wren chick from the nest and returning to search for more chicks. Also had a female Sparrow hawk going head to head with a rook trying to protect it nest.. the rook won in the end. Last year they had an Osyter catcher camera which caught a jackdaw taking all 3 eggs within the nest.

Considering they cover about 10 nests each year and the always loose at least on to corvids I think the trapping of these species is a must.
(Thats before I even condsider the damage to livestock also)

Birdnuts

Terrier wrote: »

On Springwatch on BBC2 last night they explained the whole Magpie\crow\larsen trap issue. Was done very well for what I taught would be extremely negitive towards trapping.
Showed larsen traps how they work and expalined why certain groups believe it works.
They even admitted that the RSPB carry out trapping on reserves where certain species numbers are low.

The previous night they even had a Jay on camera pulling a wren chick from the nest and returning to search for more chicks. Also had a female Sparrow hawk going head to head with a rook trying to protect it nest.. the rook won in the end. Last year they had an Osyter catcher camera which caught a jackdaw taking all 3 eggs within the nest.

Considering they cover about 10 nests each year and the always loose at least on to corvids I think the trapping of these species is a must.
(Thats before I even condsider the damage to livestock also)

Yeah - saw that. Its increadible that a rook would try to steal eggs from a nesting Sparrowhawk but there you go, and just shows what serious egg thieves corvids are:(

PS: AFAIK BWI like the RSPB also trap/shoot Grey crows and mags at a number of reserves around the country:)