Bog Myrtle & Peat

Country tradition has it that the best call bird for a Larsen trap is an unfamiliar crow who has been brought in from elsewhere. Other crows are so enraged by the presence of the newcomer that they cannot resist attacking it, becoming captured themselves in due course.

I should have put more thought into where I positioned the Solway Multi Larsen trap. I am still confident that I set the trap in a good place, but I have been in and out of the woodcock wood and passed it so often recently that the crows must surely now suspect that something is up. One of the first rules of setting up a larsen trap is to make sure that the crow never sees you anywhere near the trap site. I have been back and forth, and sure enough there has been no sign of interest in the rabbit carcase. Falling back on the traditional technique, I have decided to catch a call bird elsewhere and take it up to the Chayne. Crows are much less suspicious of larsen traps once they contain a live call bird, and in theory, taking a new bird up there should get things kick started. In addition, I have been told that the snow and frost will kill off any call birds on the Chayne for the next month, so focusing my attentions elsewhere should be a good idea in the meantime.

I recently moved into a little cottage by the Solway coast, and on my first evening, I was appalled to find that crows and magpies regularly visit the garden to harass the songbirds and make a nuisance of themselves. Tossing some bread crusts out of the window last night, I was encouraged to see the ragged black shapes come swarming out of the sky to feast when they thought that my back was turned. I built a ragged larsen trap of my own a few years ago and abandoned it when a badger chewed through two layers of chicken wire to eat the call bird, but it has now been resurrected for the occasion. With a couple of new larsen springs courtesy of Solway Feeders and some string to fix the holes in the wire, it is fully functional again. Fingers crossed that, over the next couple of days I will catch the first of many crows to come.