I grew up on a farm in Indiana where there was a woodlot on the place.
I was a teenager and had recently aquired a 12 guage shot gun. There
was a crow's nest back in the woods that we knew about and one day my
friend, Jerry and I took a feed sack and my shot gun to the woods. I
shot into the nest and knocked a couple of unfledged youngsters out
of it onto the ground. They were still very much alive so we put them
into the sack. There was a lot of squawking in the process and crows
started coming from everywhere. We continued to shake the bag once in
a while and before long we had more crows around than I have ever seen
in one place, then or since. It got to be a little intimidating.

At that time, crows were high on the list of farm pests to be got rid
of, an impossibility. They are very wary and also very hard to kill
with a gun. So was any kind of a hawk. There was only one kind of
hawk we knew. That was a 'chicken hawk' and whenever one was seen the
only thought was to "quick get the gun" and kill it if you can. We
were scared to death of snakes also by our parents. In their desire
to keep us safe, they had us kids beleiving all snakes were harmful.
As far as we knew any kind of snake might be a rattlesnake or a
copperhead, both of which were around. We probably killed a lot of
snakes that were the beneficial ones, I am sure

Ed Lamb, Bellevue edsplace at worldnet.att.net.