Nought to crow about

Tom Sykes chases corvids on a Highland estate and reflects on how it differs from his standard hunting techniques

- Tom Sykes

Summertime is typically when I receive phone calls regarding problem corvids that need to be dealt with. Despite these calls being few and far between since moving to Scotland, a good friend of mine, a headkeeper on the east coast, called me to ask if I fancied having a go at shooting some of his crows. He explained that a few problem birds had managed to avoid his traps, and the opportunity was there if I wished to try to track them down. As I am always keen to make the most of such chances and never like to shy away from a challenge, I arranged to head over the following day.

Briefing

After a two-and-a-half-hour drive, I rendezvoused with the keepers at their workshop around 8am to get the intelligence I needed on where to start my search for the crows. The estate covers thousands of acres of open hill, established woodland, clear fell, new plantations and lochs, meaning any information on the crows' general movements were greatly appreciated to help narrow down the search and help me compile a plan of attack.

The initial sightings appeared to be varied and all over the estate, and there was no evidence to tie the birds to a particular location. After a discussion, we decided that the best plan was to head up the estate's internal track on to the hill and head to the furthest plantation, where the hooded crows had been seen most frequently.

Zero check 

The intel gathered and a rough plan in place, the next port of call was to head to the estate rifle range for a quick zero. I was 'tooled up' for any eventuality as I had the Mossberg 500 pump with plenty of hard-hitting 35g No 5 Gamebore Pigeon Extremes, my little CZ 455 .17HMR and the Tikka T3x lite 6.5 Creedmoor on the off-chance of a fox or for a super long-range crow.