Man this is fun

Problem is, I'm not getting on with my work! This is way more fun with the boys who are on school holiday.

Will go and pick up the birds later. Don't want to show ourselves in the paddocks yet.

There are two decoys on the right of the tree at the end of the video. The 'pies come to the distress call pretty much immediately, and perch to watch the decoys. Range is around 75-80m. Whack!

After we cleaned up 35 odd in the autumn, there's only a few brave enough to come to these pines now, and we watch them giving the block a wide berth as they fly over neighbouring properties. But the current four birds reckon they're hard case. Well, there's only one left now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnA1Wq1etk4

Magpie mayhem this morning. About an hour after first light, it all kicked off. The neighbouring mobs obviously worked out there was a new gap in the territory map, so they all came for a gander. The distress caller immediately brought them in close, whack whack whack, a couple flapped around a bit which really gets the others going. The dog was about to pop, he watched the birds falling out of the tree and just about wet himself, didn't bark once though, good boy. A few stood off up high, and got picked off at 90m or thereabouts, not a breath of wind this morning, and it's cloudy else I'd be looking into the sun.

There's another 5 hung up in the pines. If they don't die instantly, they tend to flap and get caught up, which is a bit frustrating on one hand, but man does it get the attention of the other birds. I counted 11 birds dead, missed one, had to reload once and there's eight left in the 10 shot magazine. So not bad for 15 minutes before breakfast.

Now all we can hear are the tui, bellbirds and piwakawaka and the imported tweeters. Love it.

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Nice effort mate, lots of juvenile birds there too, none have moved into the territory I have been shooting, they come onto the neighbours but not my folks they are actively avoiding it and won't even fly over it (pretty funny to watch)

Nice work flyblown. When I was farming a flock of magpies used to occasionally hang out in a tree on my front lawn. I had a very accurate cz452 at the time, suppressed and shooting kilwell whispers. I would quietly poke it through the ranch slider and pop one off. The flock would scatter but curiosity got the better of them and they would be back 5mins later to check on their dead buddy on the lawn. I would often get 4 or 5 before they decided that this was all a bit hazardous and it’s best not to check on their fallen comrades!

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Originally Posted by dannyb

Nice effort mate, lots of juvenile birds there too, none have moved into the territory I have been shooting, they come onto the neighbours but not my folks they are actively avoiding it and won't even fly over it (pretty funny to watch)

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Yup, and aren't the juveniles stupid. The one sat in the tree, transfixed by the caller and his flapping mate, giving me the chance to reload ten rounds and then kill him.

The decoys really hold the adult birds' attention too. They're way too big, but that doesn't seem to matter. I picked off 2 adults yesterday who sat in the tree directly above the decoys, hopping about and looking down at them, whilst singing at max volume, wondering what the hell was going on. Combined with the caller, its deadly. What I really want is to trap one and use it as a Judas bird.

If anyone wants the distress calls, drop me a line. I use one I got off here, and another couple that I recorded from a lightly wounded bird we were able to catch. These work extremely well.

I'll edit the one bunch of recordings into a looped set and send them. Send me a pm with an email pls.

If the file is too large to email easily, I'll put it on Google Drive and send you a link.

I like your dog, very cool!

Thanks @Fawls, he's just be scolded in the photo, for trying to eat bird. He turned away in disdain, with his tail tucked so far up under his arse, its looks like its been cut off. His sister is just out of shot. She won't come near the birds, for she just knows she will succumb to temptation...

Good work flyblown,Bo and I are thinning the buggers out.
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