Crow bangers

DRedSky

Hi all. Looking for advice on crow bangers.

I’m being driven crazy by a rookery in a field next to my house. Owner of said field uncontactable to request him to cut down / trim tree and crows everywhere, noise is awful.

I hope to get a crow banger and place it in the corner of my garden which is right next to the rookery and persuade the crows to move on.

However, I want to do my research properly before buying anything.

My main concern is not annoying anyone living nearby so can I get one with adjustable volume? There is a neighbour say 400 metres away so I don’t want some booming thing that will drive them nuts but at the same time loud enough to scare the crows off out of the huge tree beside the corner of my garden.

I understand from quickly googling that they come with timers to prevent early morning or late night noise but how much can you really adjust the volume downward if necessary?

And where do people usually buy them?

Thanks in advance.

SortingYouOut

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058314829/crow-bangers

Can't see them being loud enough to be effective without being loud enough to cause noise issues for neighbours. Is it possible to look into the noise coming in to your home, what are your windows like etc?

How long are they there or how long are you there? Fixating on noise can make it louder, you could look into ways of them becoming background noise. Same way city noise can become white noise eventually.

hopeso

There's an area of large trees not too far away from here. They were always inhabited by crows. Then suddenly a few years ago, the crows just disappeared, and haven't been back since. Would this be usual behaviour for crows?

There was a small housing estate built very near the trees around 20 years ago, but the crows were still there for about 15 years after. I was wondering if someone in the estate done something to clear the crows? All I know is that there was certainly no banger used.

con747

A bird of prey might have moved in close to them.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121140542#Comment_121140542

DRedSky

The corner of the garden where I hoped to place the banger is right next to the rookery so my hope was that if there is such a thing as a banger with good volume control then surely it would be possible to scare them without making it sound like the end of the world in the process?

the neighbours house is easily 400-500 metres away so could it not be done?

It’s proving tricky finding info online about how much the volume can be controlled on these things, though I’m happy about the way they can be timed etc.

Aravo

A crow banger is not a solution I would use. I can imagine it's way too close to your property and no doubt your neighbour would not be impressed.

DRedSky

Thanks Aravo. Not looking good so.

Are there any alternatives people could suggest?

blackbox

Live and let live.

hopeso

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121140657#Comment_121140657

Could you consult any neighbours before you do anything? Perhaps the crows are annoying them as much as you? They might agree to you getting a banger, so long as it was used within certain time limits and such.

Silverdream

Wouldn't recommend a crow banger, the nearest neighbour might not be effected but it could be someone a mile away the the sound vibrates to.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121140542#Comment_121140542

Crows could have been poisoned. I wouldn't be in favour of that either, seen an old farmer do it years ago, he used to leave out bread laced with rat poison.

Mo Ghile Mear

I hear you DRed. We had them near us for years and they make a woeful racket. We never did anything about them but like the other poster they just moved to another area about one kilometre away from us for no reason that I could figure.

To be honest I actually missed them, I got used to the noise and they had a whole routine of coming and going and gathering in the field, with what seemed to be a purpose.

One of our neighbours did get a banger, mostly to keep them out of his farmyard as they would gather in their dozens around cattle feeding time. But it didn't seem to deter them much.

We have buzzards around here for the past couple of years and maybe that was what caused them to move on. What about those fake bird of prey things you can set up, like you see on buildings in Dublin to deter seagulls?

Birdnuts

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121140900#Comment_121140900

Poisoning is totally illegal now - given the risk to other protected birds and wildlife. In the OP's case the best solution is to shoot a few crows and hang them up near the roost. They will get the message soon enough. Could be reinforced with scaring via BOP models etc.

TinyMuffin

Crows are protected now. Banger volume is adjusted by sliding the barrel up and down. The shorter the barrel the less noise. When it’s at full length, there’s a fair crack out of it and the echo across the countryside would be the problem. You could get audio of birds of prey to scare them off.

https://www.donedeal.ie/view/5964510

Bird Scarers that Really Work - from Bird Gard

lmk123

Put in a comment to the shooting section, there might be someone nearby that would be happy to help

DRedSky

Thanks Tinymuffin, I’ll look into that today.

To the person who said live and let live, i never said i wanted to kill them. I simply don’t want the rookery at the corner of my garden, so just trying to persuade them to move, plenty of empty fields around here. And also trying to do it without being a pest to my neighbours myself.

Anyway, thanks again everyone else for the helpful replies and advice.

Lime Tree Farm

I would have thought a rookery was protected. All my life I see them fly past in groups in the morning and returning in the evenings. They are like part of the landscape, the rookery seems to be there forever- I would hate to see their site disturbed.