Larry A. Smail's Blog

Turkey hunter????

   Despite the weather people calling for rain the morning hours produced few drops of water. Bob and I split up to cover more area. I was sneaking through the pre-dawn morning when a gobbler sounded off across a small ravine at approximately 200 yards. His first gobble was at 5:35 A.M. He didn’t gobble much and left the roost sometime after 6:20. I could hear hen chatter near by.

    Two shots sounded off, somewhere,  on top of the hill above the gobbler. I later found lots of feathers along a gas line. I walked back around where I had heard the tom and after hearing some hen talk another gobble exploded in the gray woodland.

Mayapples

  I elected to cross the hollow again and try another approach. (I tend to fear hen talk. I treat hen yelping as a potential hunter so I try to avoid any situations such as this.) On the next hill top,I sent some seductive hen calls and was immediately answered by two gobblers and too close for comfort. I sat down in rapid preparation knowing this calling site choice had some issues. There were some down trees and I feared these obstacles could be a deterrent with the birds approach. I had no choice since the silent birds were, no doubt, sneaking on in. Another twin gobble and there the two longbeards were coming on in. I was ready!

    The two toms slowly surveyed the area in search of the hen. They stood at 45-48 yards and stared for a time before becoming suspicious and easing on. I try to keep the shots to 35 yards and under and those distances were much too risky  for me.

Shortly, I went searching for Bob and we returned to the site where the two birds were and waited for some time in hopes of hearing a bird as time went on. The woods were silent.

Fisher tracks?

  All in all, I saw three toms and one hen; two deer; some squirrels and  two scarlet tanagers. (One of my favorite spring birds.) I found tracks that I believe could be fisher tracks and a remains of a beaver. I removed the skull for the native American Room in the museum.