Jump to content

Rooks nest building


Recommended Posts

Been to one of my permissions today and sat with the binoculars watching the rooks frantically building their nests ready for the year

This wood gas been very quiet over the winter not sure where they go but they are back here in numbers now 

Should I strart shooting them or let them be for a while as I know I need to thin them out for the farmer But I don't want to scare them off and stuff my shooting up and them to move on to another area 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As hawkeye said, wait till the young are just ready to leave the nest, don’t shoot the young ones as they will draw the adults, when you have given the adults a bashing move onto the branchers, I usually take the air rifle and the shotgun for these.

Good luck :good:

Edited by old'un
Link to comment
Share on other sites

My local golf club is desperate for me to shoot some because they peck the greens a lot - but I can't get there in daylight because of golfers.

I'll need to be knocking ten bells out the nests just after dark come very early May - which is the only time I use a shotgun, bought for that very purpose.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, old'un said:

As hawkeye said, wait till the young are just ready to leave the nest, don’t shoot the young ones as they will draw the adults, when you have given the adults a bashing move onto the branchers, I usually take the air rifle and the shotgun for these.

Good luck :good:

SNAP that's the way i do it...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 hours ago, Dave-G said:

My local golf club is desperate for me to shoot some because they peck the greens a lot - but I can't get there in daylight because of golfers.

I'll need to be knocking ten bells out the nests just after dark come very early May - which is the only time I use a shotgun, bought for that very purpose.

Put some corn feed onto the fairway preferably on the first few holes. Crows will learn to come to that area. Go out towards the end of the day when the. Golfers will have moved onto the back end of the course, hide shoot. Key is to talk it through with the Course manager. If you have a rookery on site then  when the branches are about 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Strangely enough the last time I was shooting some black’s most were crows and jackdoors with the odd rook, its surprising the amount of people who say they have shot a few crows but on inspection turn out to be rooks.

Had a farmer once ask me not to shoot the rabbits as he likes to see them about, and there were lots of them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

47 minutes ago, team tractor said:

They eat the grubs . I haven’t lost permissions just the rooks.

im under stricked orders on the one shoot not to touch rooks . Any thing else goes . 

I used to love rook bashing too 

I love to be near a rookery in  early spring with all that noise and the toing and froing,  quintessential English along with church bells, rooks eat leather jackets, an agricultural pest

Edited by islandgun
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, islandgun said:

I love to be near a rookery in  early spring with all that noise and the toing and froing,  quintessential English along with church bells, rooks eat leather jackets, an agricultural pest

I do as well , must be getting sentimental in my old age , I now only shoot a few Rooks to put on sticks if I am asked to , if not asked then I no longer shoot them .

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, andrewluke said:

if you are going to shoot the rooks wouldn't it be better to shoot them before the have young ones????

Rooks aren’t daft. The moment you appear with a gun they’ll be off, even before you fire a shot. Branchers are sitting targets if you get the timing right, and can be picked off dead easy with a variety of firearms. We can get dozens at a time. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Scully said:

Rooks aren’t daft. The moment you appear with a gun they’ll be off, even before you fire a shot. Branchers are sitting targets if you get the timing right, and can be picked off dead easy with a variety of firearms. We can get dozens at a time. 

doesn't make sense to me,surely waiting for them to have their young is for your shooting pleasure not pest control??

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, andrewluke said:

doesn't make sense to me,surely waiting for them to have their young is for your shooting pleasure not pest control??

Better for control. Shoot too early and they will leave and you just get a few. time it right and you can make a dent in the numbers. Some of my farms have literally hundreds at a time. They will scare the cattle in the yards and cause them to fall over. I have seen a flock so large on the feed troughs that the cattle refused to come into the yard. 

On a new sown field they will go down a row pulling seed for grubs and take out acres at a time. This year with the ban on maize treatments they are likely to be worse than ever. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, oowee said:

Better for control. Shoot too early and they will leave and you just get a few. time it right and you can make a dent in the numbers. Some of my farms have literally hundreds at a time. They will scare the cattle in the yards and cause them to fall over. I have seen a flock so large on the feed troughs that the cattle refused to come into the yard. 

On a new sown field they will go down a row pulling seed for grubs and take out acres at a time. This year with the ban on maize treatments they are likely to be worse than ever. 

still doesn't make sense to me???

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, andrewluke said:

doesn't make sense to me,surely waiting for them to have their young is for your shooting pleasure not pest control??

It makes perfect sense if you think about it. Shooting branchers is by far the most effective method of controlling numbers. As Oowee says, you may get a few adults but like I also said, you can get dozens of branchers. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, Scully said:

It makes perfect sense if you think about it. Shooting branchers is by far the most effective method of controlling numbers. As Oowee says, you may get a few adults but like I also said, you can get dozens of branchers. 

i'll have to try this scenario on my ratting permission,i'll tell the farmer that there are only a few adult rats about so if i give them time to breed then i'll get bigger numbers by shooting the young rats,i think the farmer would want me to shoot the rats before they breed !

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...