TAILS YOU WIN WITH CORVIDS

Controlling corvids with an air rifle is often challenging. Birds like crows, rooks, jackdaws and magpies are sharp-eyed and very suspicious of anything out of the ordinary, so persuading them to land within striking distance can be tricky to say the least.

I think it’s fair to say that a shotgun is usually the best option when corvids turn up in really big numbers. Where I live, it is not unusual for large flocks of crows, rooks and jackdaws to decimate freshly planted crops after the spring drillings, and efforts to drive them away with the 12-bore frequently produce bags well in excess of 50 birds and often significantly more.

So when a friend contacted me to say he was having problems with corvids around the silage clamps on his farm, my initial outings saw