Surrounded by Turkeys

But nothing to show for it.  It was an exciting weekend though with lots of encounters and action.

 Saturday morning I was a little late getting out and there were turkeys in the barn field when I walked out the door.  They immediately busted me so I went down and set up in the field to see if they would come back.  I called for about an hour with gobbling in the distance.  I gave up and decided to move.  When I stood up, a turkey flew away on the opposite side of the field. Strike two.

First I moved to the ridge trail and didn't get any action at all.  Then I moved to the pond field.  I sat for about an hour without luck.  I decided to spin past the barn field on my way in.  As I got close, I could see a gobbler strutting in the field.  I tried to call him out of the field but he wasn't having it.  I got low and went up thru the pines to approach the field. He busted me - strike three.  In for breakfast.  After breakfast, I hunted the balance of the morning without success.

I got a couple hours of chores in before it started to rain.  Although pretty wet, I gave the pumpkin patch it's first turning.

 I mowed the remnant of the sorghum in the main field.  I also turned the firepit field and sprayed some roundup on the orchard field and a few spots in the new prairie grass field.

 The tent caterpillars are terrible in the crabapples.  Then the rain started and I had to go in.

 During the downpour, turkeys started coming first into the barn field and then up toward the barn.  I sat in the dining area with my phone and took these pictures thru the window and thru the rain.

I got my telephoto for the phone and zoomed in on them past the bird feeders.

 This gobbler has a distinctive (damaged) fan and has been showing up on camera with three other Toms.

 Sure enough, all four showed up.

 As we look at these photos, I'll tell you about my Sunday morning hunt.  I went to the barn field early.  I could hear them gobbling on the roost behind me in the woods.

 I decided to be quiet and just sit still.  There was a lot of calling - hens and Toms and they were close.  It went on for about an hour and then went quiet.  I hadn't twitched and I decided to move.  As soon as I did, a turkey took off flying from the field edge.  Darn it.

I decided to stay put and did a little calling.  I got gobbles in response from pretty close.  I kept working it and he just kept getting closer coming in from behind.  He seemed like he was very close when a hen came into the field from the other side of the field.  She went by the decoy and circled around the field.

The gobbler just kept calling from right behind me.  A second hen came in the field and they both stayed out there feeding. I was still as a statue.  It sounded like the gobbler was 10' behind me.

Suddenly a red head showed up behind the decoy on the other side of the field.  50 yards away.  Then another.  Then another.  Then there were four in a row walking parallel to me at 50 yards.  The hens were still hanging out there.  The Toms started to strut but turned toward the far side of the field.  I thought they were getting set to do a strutting lane back and forth.

They went to the far side of the field and hung around for awhile.  But they never came back.  I tried calling while I could still see their heads.  Nope.  They were off down the atv trail.  It was the same group of Toms that I had been seeing.  All mature.  One with the damaged fan. I guess that my best shot was when I first saw them but I thought they would come closer - wrong.

 It had rained all Saturday evening/night but it stopped on Sunday.  So I got the fleet out and rearranged the barn.  Everything off the battery maintainers and they all started.

 It got nice enough that Joan came out for a tour.  It's hard to tell but that's a really pretty dogwood behind her.

 I found this little spike shed antler.

 My neighbor sent me this photo.  He found the shed from the mutant.  I was afraid that I killed and lost this buck but it survived.  What a nice rack (on that side - other side is odd).

 The pond overflow had these little 1/4" tadpoles swimming in it.  I guess they're frogs.

 I took a walk looking for morels (no luck) and shed antlers (also no luck).  But I saw ferns.

 And weird trees.

 And purple flowers (I should know what this is).

 And violets (I think).

Sunday ended up being nicer than predicted.  I got some mowing done even though it was quite wet.

Theresa was on camera - she has already started the mowing for the year.  There might have been some freeze damage on the fruit trees - we had a late freeze/snow after they bloomed.

Late breaking news.  Our friend Chris took this Tom in Butler County.  Great job Chris!