crow/magpie decoys in the pattern

[death from below]

I regularly put a couple of crow/magpie decoys at the edge of my pattern as this was how I was taught several years ago as it apparently has a calming effect on the woodies.....although i have never really had any interest from either magpies or crows althought the woodies don't seem to mind. Does anybody else use a spluttering of mags/crows and if so do you get any interest from the corvids. if so where do you place them to bring in the interest of the corv's. I also often don't put them in my pattern of woody pigeons and my numbers don't suffer.

[pin]

This exact thing came up recently, the general consensus was it doesn't harm at all and quite a few rate it.

 

Most fields of pigeon I see (mostly harvest/drilling time) seem to have pigeon in the middle with JoeCrow dotted about outside the pigeon - my theory was it looks more natural, I guess Mr Woody sees the crows and takes more confidence from them being there.

[magman]

now and again i will put a crow decoy on the edge of me pattern doe,s no harm

[08shooter]

i find maggies give extra confidence as you know maggies wont sit around if there is any danger

[charlie 1]

i also tend to put 1 or 2 crows bowt 5-10 yards away form the far side of my decoy pattern.

i don't think it changes much for the pigeon but i very often get a few jackdaws or rooks come and have a look.