Blue Ridge Country July/August 2021 - 55

Text and detail photos by JULIA NUNNALLY DUNCAN
G
rowing up in Western North
Carolina, I saw plenty of
crows, but I didn't give them
much thought. They were just
part of the rural landscape.
Marrying a crow hunter, however,
made me more aware of
them. My husband, Steve, began hunting
crows as a teenager, and after we married,
he continued crow hunting in the cornfields
along the Catawba River, carrying
his Ithaca 12 gauge shotgun.
He's told me he especially enjoyed
hunting in fall because of the season's
colors and " when it was cool enough to
wear a flannel shirt and a jacket and be
comfortable. " I think being outdoors was
what he most enjoyed about hunting.
I became better acquainted with crows
when Steve and I started planting a garden
each spring in our back pasture. A
large part of our garden was a corn crop,
which attracted crows. When our corn
seeds had just started to sprout, we would
hear the dreaded cawing.
" Crows! " we cried, rushing to the
garden.
Steve had heard if you hang a dead
crow in your garden, other crows would
stay away, perceiving the area as unsafe.
We tried this one year, and it helped deter
crows from damaging our corn crop.
Ordinarily, though, we made a scarecrow,
dressing it in Steve's old clothes, and
placed it at the head of the corn patch.
We also stretched strings with aluminum
pans attached throughout the garden and
hung wind chimes on poles at the end
of rows. We mounted an owl decoy on
a fence post as a sentinel. Despite these
preventative efforts, we still found tender
corn leaves plucked from the soil, the
corn seeds nipped off. We knew crows
had struck.
Obviously, a crow is a smart bird, not
easily duped. Indeed, the crow has been
ABOVE: One of the backyard crows enjoys
a bit of bread.
FACING PAGE: Crows are known to mate
for life.
hailed as the most intelligent bird in
North America. Steve has always attested
to a crow's intelligence, explaining to me
that crows have a unique language that
features different calls with a varied number
of caws. This language includes fight
calls, when an owl or hawk is spotted near
Fun for the whole family!
There is so much to do....
IN BEAUTIFUL RABUN COUNTY, GEORGIA | ONLY 2 HOURS NORTH OF ATLANTA
SHOPPING
DINING
LODGING
EVENTS
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JULY/AUGUST 2021 55
Clayton
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Blue Ridge Country July/August 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Blue Ridge Country July/August 2021

Blue Ridge Country July/August 2021 - 1
Blue Ridge Country July/August 2021 - 2
Blue Ridge Country July/August 2021 - 3
Blue Ridge Country July/August 2021 - 4
Blue Ridge Country July/August 2021 - 5
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