Page 215 - It's a Rum Life Book 3 "Ivy House Tales 1970 to 1984"

CHAPTER 41

THE CROW SCARER

I am at home sitting at my computer, it is just midnight and to cool off after stress and
considerable physical exertion during the last hour and a half, I have been prompted to tell
you the tale of the “crow scarers” from the 1970’s.
I never thought that I would have to turn out in the dark when approaching the age of 70 to
trudge across ploughed fields searching for the “banger” that is stopping me and half our
community getting to sleep. It just so happens though that I probably have more
experience at seeking and disabling “crow scarers” than anyone else for miles around. The
original story happened like this:

1970’s
In the 1970’s we lived in a lovely community which was surrounded by the most evil
landowner one could ever imagine. You will probably have read about him already in some
of the earlier stories.
He farmed huge fields of over 100 acres in size, all created by destroying hedgerows and
trees. All these were very convenient for his massive farm machinery and designed to
produce maximum profits with no regard for the environment. To prevent the local bird
population from seeking his newly sown seed he employed the latest mechanical gas
powered cannon type bird scarers.

The land was very flat and as I said there
were no trees or hedges so when they
went off bang the noise carried for what
seemed like miles.
On clear nights the noise seemed to echo
off the sky and double its stressful and
traumatising effect.
This is the whole point you see, they
were not just going off during the day but
also at night when the birds are all asleep
and we were trying to.
The farmer, needless to say lived miles away. You wouldn’t catch him putting a crow
scarer within hearing distance of his house!
Of course they were timed and so when you are lying in bed trying to doze off, they kept
continuing to bang at regular intervals.
There is a law against it and most farmers are quite considerate, this chap just couldn’t
care less.
First of all I would ring the local police and complain. They were supposed to get the
landowner out of his bed to turn the things off, but if you were not quite sure who owned
the land where they were banging then the police could do nothing.

Picture of unknown make of crow scarer taken from the internet just as an example

A COMMUNITY SERVICE
With the very first crow scarer that created problems, I began by just turning the things off
at the gas cylinder tap. If the message had not got through, the next time I would cut the

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