Turkey season is definitely an early-bird-gets-the-worm game, so to speak, as the mornings start well before daylight. I’m not much of an early person, so it takes me a few minutes and a cup of coffee to get functioning. After the brisk walk up to the top of the ridge with the first rays of sun trying to peek through, I’m wide awake and ready to hear a gobbler break the morning silence.
Usually the turkeys will talk a little before flying off the roost, revealing their location. This gives you the chance to slip in and get close before setting up. However, it doesn’t mean that they’ll fly right down into your lap; oftentimes, they’ll pitch off in the opposite direction, especially if the gobbler has hens with him as the hens don’t like competition.
When they don’t cooperate and head the other way, I usually try to go find another gobbling bird. I’ll remember the spot where I was and return later, around 9 a.m. or so, when the hens go to the nest. By returning to familiar ground, the gobbler is more likely to come in fast if he’s still within hearing distance of your calls.
So far this year has been tough for me. I’ve heard a few turkeys gobble and know where they’re roosting, but they haven’t been very vocal at all. The times I’ve made it out I’ll hear a faint gobble and no longer pinpoint where it came from, only to set up and never hear another peep other than the song birds singing the rest of the morning.
That’s turkey hunting, though, as it only takes finding a lonely gobbler and things can happen fast. I just haven’t found that one yet. When the turkeys aren’t talking, I often find myself just sitting back and watching the sun rise over the rolling hills and hollows. The pink sky gives way to an orange glow with a dense fog hanging in the river bottoms. It’s times like this that remind me all is good and I’m right where I belong.
Needless to say, I’ve been enjoying those sunrises. One morning I made it to my vantage point at daybreak but never heard the first gobble. From this location I can hear most of the farm.
Another thing that happens when the turkeys aren’t communicating is that I do more walking, which isn’t a bad thing as I can always use the exercise.
Just as I was walking toward and cresting the top of a point, I caught movement to my left. All of a sudden a head and neck pops out behind a black oak tree. I froze in my tracks and said to myself, “That’s a turkey’s head.” It was facing in the opposite direction and had no clue I was there. About that time, another red head pops up directly in front of me, not 10 yards away.
As I went to shoulder my shotgun, the turkeys wasted no time in taking to the air. There was another bigger bird to the right and all I could do was watch them glide down into a deep hollow. I’m pretty sure the two were jakes, but since I couldn’t see a visible beard I followed the law and didn’t shoot.
I had let out a series of calls 100 or so yards away before walking to the top of that point, and those turkeys never made a sound. That makes it tough when they won’t talk back as I’m walking along trying to locate a bird and literally run right into them. I’d much rather have the ol’ Toms come in gobbling their heads off like they’re supposed to but, like I said earlier, that’s turkey hunting.
April has already turned to May and summer is almost here. The fish have been biting, and with the turkeys not cooperating, I’m ready to get back on the river. The good thing about this time of the year is that you can chase turkeys in the morning and catch fish in the evenings.
Good luck to those still venturing out; spring gobbler season ends Saturday. Be safe and have patience.
Outdoors
It’s been a tough turkey season so far
- Outdoors
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Hunting has become more mainstream
As sportsmen, we live by an ethical code of conduct. We are taught by our mentors not to take our way of life for granted and to be aware of our actions as not to cause offense to others. In short, we are taught to behave in a manner as to not make a non-hunter into an anti-hunter.
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Birding among outdoor passions
If you love the outdoors, there are probably some activities you like better than others. Maybe it’s trout fishing or deer hunting. My passion is birds. I love the spring migration when new species return almost daily.
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Setting the record straight on rabbits
Thanks to cartoon characters such as Bugs Bunny, the rabbits we see in our backyards, eastern cottontails, are familiar to almost everyone. And yet I suspect that most people think they are rodents. They are not. Rabbits and hares are lagomorphs, members of the mammalian order Lagomorpha.
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Fickle weather can wreck plans
Well, it’s officially spring. We have “sprung forward” into daylight saving time in hopes of long, sunny evenings to play and work outdoors in the glorious, warm rays of the sun. In return for our daily routines being altered by the time change, we are awarded with unpredictable weather and mud season — gee, thanks!
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Black deer among nature’s rarities
A few weeks ago, Joan Robinson contacted me after she noticed something out of the usual while driving along a Hampshire County backroad in the Eastern Panhandle. It was so unusual she even questioned herself at what her eyes were actually seeing.
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Male half of nesting eagle pair feared dead
One of southern West Virginia’s much-loved and only confirmed pair of nesting American Bald Eagles is suspected dead and the pair’s eggs located at the tip of Brooks Island off W.Va. 20 are in jeopardy.
Wendy Perrone, executive director of Three River Avian Center, said National Park Service Law Enforcement was notified that an Amtrak train hit the eagle Sunday around 10:30 a.m.
Since Sunday, the Park Service, Three Rivers and dedicated volunteers have scouted the track and surrounding area from Brooks Island to Sandstone Falls, but no one has recovered the bird. The male bird, affectionately called Whitey, has also not returned to the nest, leading experts to believe he was killed. -
There is help for anglers getting started
According to statistics from the National Surveys of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation, which are published every five years, the number of anglers in the U.S. is in a steady decline. Over the last 20 years the number of anglers has dropped from 35.6 million in 1991 to 33.1 million in 2011.
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Beckley among places to ‘talk turkey’
This past week brought us snow and rain. Like my kids are fond of saying in a very sarcastic tone, “Really?” For the sportsmen in our area, the last couple of days of winter can be a downtime in the action. For those needing to scratch the hunting and fishing itch, I have a little news that might just do the trick.
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‘How do robins survive winter conditions?’
Winter must be winding down because I’m getting letters and e-mails about winter robins.
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Sequester impacting hunting, fishing industries
A news release from Bass Anglers Sportsman Society (B.A.S.S.) Communications came across my desk this week, and I felt the information was worth sharing.
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