Huh?

Do all gobblers have beards?

When the alarm went off at 5:30, I could hear the rain on the roof.  So, I turned the alarm off and went back to sleep.

At 7:30, as I was having my coffee, I looked out the window to see my turkey blind surrounded by birds.  Three of them were gobblers strutting within 10 yards of the blind.  That will teach me to sleep in.

I figured - what did I have to loose?  So I suited up and slinked out to try to stalk within range.  As I was belly crawling to within about 40 yards (using my blind as a screen), I saw two red heads go up.  They were gone.

So I set up a decoy and crawled into the blind.

This was the set up.  After about 45 minutes, I had a bird strutting in to the decoy.  I looked and the fan looked full (not a jake).  I looked for the beard and ... there wasn't one.  I had the gun up.  The bird was definitely strutting.  The fan was big.  The head was red, white and blue.  But there was no beard.  I lowered the gun to take a closer look and he busted me.  He flew right out of the field.

Well, I'm headed to the shower.  I'm still not sure if it is even legal to shoot a bird without a beard.  Next time, I'll get up when the alarm goes off.  And I'll know if it is legal to shoot a beardless Tom.