my updated owl decoy

[stubby]

after watching the video clip that evil elvis put up, it got my brain gears turning, seems a few people have tried the plastic owl decoy to attract crows or magpies, with little or no success, I felt a bit like a fly fisherman, who spends time making a fly to get that fish he's after, one of my permissions, a sheep/goat farm has large numbers of magpies, but they wont play ball when Im there, I'm hoping this new idea will do the trick and lure them over to me and the hushpower 410

 

the u tube clip showed a stuffed owl, with a dead crow in its grasp, so that got me thinking, this was the way to go, I had already adapted some american dove decoys I had to look like magpies, and I had one dove left that had those stupid spinning wings, that never seemed to work properly,

I also had a pair of pigeon wings, that I'd cut off months ago and dried out on the shed roof

so out came the cans of black and white spray, I fixed the wings to the body loosley, so they would flap in the wind, using avi-strand, which is simular to fishing line, and attached a clip to the underside of body/tail

 

 

I then fixed an eye into the base of the owl, I'd already fixed a metal tube inside the owl, along with 7x 1mtr poles that slot together, I'll be able to position it high enough in a tree, leaving the pole in place to secure it, either pushing the base pole into the ground, or strapping to the trunk

 

 

spraying any shinney metal bits black, the magpie then clips onto the owl's feet, and can still turn, flap wings in the breeze, or thats the theory anyway

 

our garden normally has magpies everywhere, but wanting to test out, theres none about, if they dont return I'll have to wait till friday morning, and take it over the farm for a test run, hopefully more pictures/results to follow

Edited April 12, 2010 by stubby

[Shotgunspud]

Good luck with that It looks the part

[A bolt 22.250]

Nice one :blink:

[Spaniel]

That may just work :blink:

 

well done cant wait for the update

[stubby]

update;

 

not as good as I had hoped, the lofting pole made from 7 x 1mtr lengths of pergoda tubing worked fine, it took me a few attempts to find the best tree/location, but got there eventually and was happy with the way it looked, and moved in the wind, only trouble was, it did'nt attract anything

well it did, a woodie that came a bit too close to investigate fell to my 410, and at that split second I put the gun down to take a sip of juice, a maggie came in, and quickly flew off as my movement caught its eye

 

Im expecting some pheasant feathers from another PW member, maybe with those stuck on, it'll make it more eyecatching, but I wont give up,

 

owl decoy in tree

 

the bottom of pole, held in place with large piece velcro

 

a good excuse for not getting more shots, I noticed my hushpower seems out of enlinement with the barrel, so when shooting, its around 5mm to the right of line of sight, I popped into the gunsmiths on way home, and it appears it's missing a baffle, which in turn is allowing the inner barrel to kick out a little, easy enough fix so Im told, havent noticed it before, as on close up fox work its hardly anything, but at 30yd objects, its probably a good 8" off target

[Spaniel]

at least you had a go

thought it was a good idea myself but see how you get on by sticking the feathers on it......

[jimmyh1988]

lol they sell them in scats

[blacta]

in that video the owl is at the very top of a small tree making it obvious against the surrounding tree tops all about the same height,

i would say try find a place which is directly in the magpies face say a young wood or a grown up hedgerow?

only an idea, may be worth a try

Blacta

[stubby]

good point, Im out there again on friday, and Ive just recieved corvussam's magpie in distress call (see invisablescarecrows post) which sounds great, so with the decoy and call, Im hoping for better results

[A bolt 22.250]

How did it go

Edited May 6, 2010 by A bolt 22.250