Feathered friend

Tom Sykes is always keen to test new ideas and to this end modified his owl decoy with interesting results

- Tom Sykes

I have always been keen to learn from others and test different techniques. Experimenting with tactics can be very effective on birds that have encountered just about every trick in the book. It also helps to keep my shooting interesting and gives me things to work on when I can’t get out of the house.

In recent years, I have seen more and more people using owl decoys on crows. They seem to be very popular in other countries, especially Sweden, where they have taken the art of using owl decoys to a new level. I have also noticed a trend to add feathers to the plastic decoys, to give them an edge by improving their realism. I have had great results in the past with plastic owl decoys but thought the addition of feathers stood a chance of improving my success rate. It was also just the excuse that I needed to get out my glue gun and do a bit of crafting.

Feathers

I bought a small dull grey decoy, which definitely had a lot of room for improvement. I thought that the best feathers to add to it were those of a hen pheasant, as they are easily sourced during the season and provide the typical mottled brown effect found on tawny and eagle owls. I plucked the feathers from the wings, back and breasts and glued them to the relevant areas of the decoy to create a realistic look. I finished off by painting the face, feet and base. The whole process was time-consuming but rather therapeutic. I love crafting projects like this, putting effort into making, adapting or improving my gear. Modification done, I had to use it to see how effective it was.