ANOTHER day in the field.  This one is a Sunday, Mothers Day 2015.  Got the green light to head on out in to the stormy woods looking for Mr. Tom!  I should be going to Church with Winemaker, but it just seems more important to be going after a turkey with Weasel and Squirrel.  Squirrel is so excited!  He called me last night to invite me to go with him and his dad to try once again to get a turkey close enough for a shot.  SURE!  I said!  Of course I’ll go!

Weasel has a different plan up his sleeve as to where to set up this morning so, I’m not sure where I’ll set up.  My spot so far has been a bust.  A good spot for watching what is going on in the valley, but not a spot the birds want to play.  Weasel is planning on putting himself and Squirrel closer to the X.  Perhaps I’ll go up hill as well and plant myself near a small spring seep.  We will see.

I hope to have pictures of dead birds for the “LATER UPDATE” on here!  Until then!  Later!

Bears Butt

May 10, 2015

UPDATE:

My view before the morning light!

Turkeys are about as predictable as a wild boar hog!  Actually I think a wild boar hog is predictable.  So, turkeys are about as unpredictable as …….   I can’t think of anything to compare the unpredictability of a turkey to.  Maybe I need to rephrase what I’m trying to say this way:  Turkeys are predictable…..NOT!!!!

We got to the hunting grounds in perfect time!  We had the mountain to ourselves and made our way through the thick and thin of it to our spots.  It was VERY WET from yesterday and last night’s rain.  Needless to say, we made no noise getting in and around to our spots.  Weasel and Squirrel chose to hunt up high where we have seen the birds go the last three times we have been out.  I chose to hunt near to where Weasel had been hiding, only about 100 yards further up the valley.  A spot where the width of the valley narrows.  I figured if the birds came down off the roost and into this valley they would funnel right up past me and BOOM!  Weasel on the other hand knew very well the birds would do exactly what they have been doing since this years season began….flying straight down from the roost and walking up past our high country blinds we built last year.  He too will be in the “neck” of the trail!  When they walk past him and Squirrel…BOOM!

As the morning light ate up the darkness of the night things were looking better and better.  I had a small owl come and land near to me and squawk a few times and then flew off.  I don’t know what kind of owl it was, but it was small, and grey….anyone?  The light gave way to many deer as they fed up the way past my position.  One is a nice little buck with horns growing and nearing the length of its ears.  He will be a pretty nice buck come the season!  When the pheasants began crowing in the fields below us, the gobbler on the roost also sounded off!  This was going to be his day to die!  He wasn’t exactly in the same spot we last heard him, but close.  He should do just what he has been doing before and that will put him in Weasel and Squirrels laps!  He gobbled several times and then shut up.  I heard a hen cackle as she flew down and I knew it was just a matter of minutes before I heard the echo and roar of Squirrels shotgun.  I sat with ears open and eyes peeled in case they came my way.

Suddenly, there was a turkey!  Across the valley!  Another!  And a third!

Those dirty little S.O.B.’s!  They continued up the trail RIGHT PAST MY BLIND on that side of the valley!!!!!!!!!!!!  They were happy birds, clucking and pecking and walking carefully up the trail!  I thought what I started this paragraph with and tossed in a few expletives and justified it all by verifying they were all 3 hens by peering through my binoculars.  That’s ok Bears Butt, you couldn’t have shot them anyway!  NO BIGGIE!  And then it happened….Up popped a gobbler with about a 9 inch beard!  OH NO!  Right by the blind!!!!!  Yes!  The blind across the valley!  And 5 more birds were with him!  Later Weasel said he saw a jake with him and the others!  My hands found my head and held it tightly!  Expletives were swirling and spinning inside my pea brain!  All those birds went right past my blind!  RIGHT PAST IT!  And then they slowly worked their way up and over the hill.  That was fine by me I was tired of looking at that long bearded critter anyway!

That was it for that spot.  We made our way back to the truck a few hours later and then off toward home.

On the way, we decided to go and see if we could find “Dry Dog’s” turkey.  One he is determined to shoot after work one of these days.  On our way to see if the bird was anywhere near the place he has seen it and low and behold….4 big old birds feeding away in an alfalfa field!  All 4 of them toms!  Of course we didn’t have permission to trespass  and even if we did, it would be illegal to shoot them there as they were only about 100 yards away from homes.  The law says you can not be closer than 200 yards from any building.  Hey Dog!  Go get em!

Bears Butt