When Did The Crow And Magpie's Become Alberta's Provincial Bird

[Swede]

Just wondering is anyone else sick of crows and magpies.

 

I've got a beautiful back yard , It's got a big pond and waterfall with lots of grass and rock work. I have about 10 bird feeders out there too. But for the life of me alls that comes to my yard is crows and magpies its sad no little songbirds of any kind except pieces of them left all over my waterfall rocks and am sick of it.

 

Garbage day is really nice with a murder of about 40 crows sitting up shop across the close from us. Anybody know anything that will keep them away because am about ready to stick the barrel of my 7MM out my window even though I live in the middle of suburbia.

 

How stupid are these people that run our government anyways I remember as a kid you would never see crows or magpies in towns because they knew to stay away from people. we used to hunt them for a bounty actually.

 

Guess its time to start using the old drilling rig trick of putting caustic inside of something and letting them eat it

[jpinkster]

How stupid are these people that run our government anyways I remember as a kid you would never see crows or magpies in towns because they knew to stay away from people. we used to hunt them for a bounty actually.

Yeah, crows and magpies suck...but I'm not sure what you are getting at here. My grandpa used to shoot magpies out of his bedroom window in west-end Edmonton all the time. It wasn't legal then, and it certainly isn't now. Government (likely with the support of local police) not wanting people to shoot off weapons in urban areas seems like a pretty good idea to me.

[bcubed]

maybe we're returning to a normal level of magpies and crows, since there's less of them being shot for being 'annoying'

 

 

yikes

[trailhead]

Someone told me that if you put up a life size replica of an owl that will keep them away. Not sure if it works or not but a buddy of mine on an acreage says it works.

[BurningChrome]

When I lived in Vancouver on garbage day the crows would tear open garbage bags on peoples' curbs and make a mess. Couple drops of bleach on your garbage bags would keep them out.

[DonAndersen]

Crows and magpies are scarce in Rocky. They have been driven out by Ravens. Ravens are not native species but have moved from BC into Alberta over the past 50 years. Our songbirds are gone as well.

Magpies and crows can be killed where ever access is available. Ravens were managed differently. Not sure what is legal now.

One thing that works are raven traps.

The waste dump west of Rocky feeds hundreds of Ravens thereby keeping them alive all winter allowing the to prey at will on songbirds.

A friend just hated the damn things. A&W foil wrap in a raven beak was just close enough to short our downtown power lines regularly. Problem solved. A&W changed to a paper bag - now the Ravens don't get thinned out by Trans Alta power.

 

Don

[dryfly]

What Don said too....

 

They are pests for sure and eat a LOT of small birds like goldfinches, house finches etc.

 

bcube said, "maybe we're returning to a normal level of magpies and crows, since there's less of them being shot for being 'annoying'"

 

I suspect our society have made life easier for them and no one is shooting them. Consider the things we do in southern Alberta to enhance their lives:

• road killed gophers by the thousands
• access to garbage...these are scavengers
• possibly enhance pops of small birds (food for them) in cities because of the tens of thousands of bird feeders and horticultural plantings
• enhanced nesting ops because of tree plantings..certainly applies in prairie towns and cities...more trees that before settlement...good nesting areas for crows and magpies.

All four apply at our summer place: bird feeders, lots of uncontrolled gophers (food) in natural park ways, no shooting, plus hundreds of nesting trees where it was once prairie,

 

So, we are not killing crows and magpies and yet we've given them many advantages and their populations increase.

[jpinkster]

Same applies to coyotes. There are a number of species that have been given an opportunity to thrive in close proximity to people:

 

Won't let me post this map, but have a look:

 

https://nebula.wsimg.com/9e144537948ea07e6f8e7ef68cb3c679?AccessKeyId=4877D91F59053B3750AE&disposition=0&alloworigin=1

[dryfly]

Yup, coyotes too. Sometimes we give unfair advantage to critters and they become problems.

 

This is why I hate crows....our bird bath at the summer place. Body parts of gophers (good) and goldfinches (not good). This happened twice and stopped once a nearby crows nest was taken down. Crows soak food items in water so that their growing young (nestlings) have ample water.

 

When the crows nest was removed the problem was solved.

 

But again this year, they are back in full force. We are not allowed to use even pellet air guns...not officially anyway.

 

 

[Conor]

I know magpie traps can be quite effective. Crows might be too wily. I have never tried but I doubt a trap would be hard to come by.

 

Keeps you honest by requiring you to do the deed yourself rather than with a projectile at long range!

[reddawg]

Other carrion-eating species benefitting from our increasing propensity to generate garbage and road kill: the turkey vulture. I saw this one on a backroad near Springbank two weeks ago. Apparently they are moving northward as we pave more of our gravel backroads in western Canada (pavement = increased road kill).

 

vulture.pdf

[Smitty]

 

 

And here I thought you were tying up some traditional wet flies Clive...

[SilverDoctor]

Magpie traps work, used them one year when the numbers got too much. Left some dead magpies on the fence up high. They avoided my yard like the plague and so did the Crows. By the way, a great bait for the rap is empty fast food wrappers. Pellets, especially in .22cal seem hard for them to digest.

[Swede]

Yeah, crows and magpies suck...but I'm not sure what you are getting at here. My grandpa used to shoot magpies out of his bedroom window in west-end Edmonton all the time. It wasn't legal then, and it certainly isn't now. Government (likely with the support of local police) not wanting people to shoot off weapons in urban areas seems like a pretty good idea to me.

You must not be as old as me than because we use to hunt and trap them on the family farm then cut there feet off to send in for a bounty.when i was a kid. But i grow up in small town alberta and you never seen crows or magpies in town except at the local dump. You couldn't get within a 100 feet of a magpie back then, they knew humans where dangerous and keep there distance. they certainly didn't set up shop in our back yards like they do now.

[jpinkster]

I don't doubt that was effective. All I was suggesting is that we should be careful what we blame government for. There is plenty we can lay at the feet of the Provincial government, but I'm not sure this is one of them. Urbanization has created an environment where these "pests" can thrive.

[Swede]

Sorry bro i don't buy it one bit. The urban environment is no different than it was 50 years ago. Except now pregnant women get shot and killed in the middle of our streets but ya lets protect the crows and magpies lol I sure didn't make a law protecting them and am pretty sure you didn't either. The fault lies on the shoulders of the government. Truth is they simply have nothing to fear from humans anymore and they know it.

 

I just ordered 2 solar powered Owls that have motion sensors to make them hoot will see if that helps I heard it does. Mind you it will probably scare the songbirds away too. Just wanted to add that they will get accustom to the owls very qwickly because they are very smart birds so i will have to move them every few days

[lad]

Use a sling shot with steel bearings and the Magpie trap.

[jpinkster]

Urban Alberta is DRAMATICALLY different today than it was 50 years ago, it's ridiculous to suggest otherwise. Calgary alone has added better than a million people. More people = more garbage, more interaction between people and animals, more road kill etc.

Nuisance animals are the price you pay for progress, and that certainly isn't the government's fault.

[Swede]

Bull they simply had the fear of humans breed out of them over the last 30 years of been protected . We had lots of garbage back in the day don t kid yourself. people used to set there garbage out and leave it out all week and you might get the odd cat going in it . now days you put it out 15 minutes before the garbage truck gets there and pray the crows don't rip it to shreds before you get to work.

[creekside]

Unsure how the owl will work, around here any raptor in the area is usually mobbed by both magpies and crows.

 

http://www.crowbusters.com/beg-techniques-decoying.html

 

Ray

[dryfly]

I agree 100% with jpinkster, "Urbanization has created an environment where these "pests" can thrive."

 

There is a modern-day tendency to always blame something for a perceived problem (climate change being the popular whipping boy) without proper analysis. There are indeed more problems with crows and magpies because society wants to protect (even) pests; population has doubled in 40 years; we've created better habitat thought trees and feeders. There are twice as many people (than there were ~40 years ago) to be affected by pests and also by any single event, say, such as a storm or fire or flood. Inappropriate urban planning is also a huge factor in increasing vulnerability. I digress.

 

Praying for rain this weekend across Alberta.

[Conor]

To clarify, magpies aren't directly protected under any legislation, but I ndirectly by bylaws that protect people (e.g. no firing of projectiles within city limits). I find it easier to deal with nuisance wildlife than nuisance neighbors.

[Swede]

I was never arguing about what caused there population to increase. what am saying is we've conditioned and changed there whole behaviour by allowing them free range on our cities and towns. I don't know if any of you guys have ever targeted and hunted magpies but when i was younger we never had a problem finding them, but you had to go out of town to do it . They where smart enough to stay away from humans when people could be trusted to use a little common sense.

.

Back in the day if you could get within 100 feet of a magpie to get a shot you where being dam sneaky. Now days a magpie will sit in a tree 20 feet above you and look down at you and taunt you because they have no fear of us anymore.If its on the ground that's a different story but there very smart and learn quickly.

 

Anyways can I tell you a funny story. I have a bichon frise and if I say crow he will run to the back door and chase any crow out of the yard. Magpies are smart enough to just sit in a tree above him and taunt him, So I see a crow on the lawn and sick my little dog on him well all be damned if the crow didn't have something wrong with its wing and couldn't fly . well the dog gets about 6 feet from the crow and stops and barks like crazy cause hes never seen one that hasn't flown away right away..Anyways the wife runs out with the broom and is trying to keep to two apart and open the back gate to shoo the crow out of the yard. Took her about 5 minutes . I was in the kitchen rolling on the floor laughing it was so funny to watch lol

[dryfly]

Hilarious story. Thanks.

 

Yes, critters are more tame because we are not allowed to shoot them...well, not legally.

[jpinkster]

So we should give people free reign to discharge fire arms in urban areas? Rules against that kind of thing are there for a reason.