Turkey Season Opens!

 And I had some success!

We didn't arrive until Saturday near noon.  In Ohio, during the first week, it is morning only hunting.  I had been seeing lots of activity near the driveway stand so, for Saturday evening, I decided to just go sit in the stand to see what was going on.  I was hoping to see where they flew up to roost.

When I got to the stand I found this.  Poop of the week.

I'm not sure who climbs up there to do this.  My previous guess has been raccoons.  But these are pretty big piles.

Anyway, it was a lovely evening sit.  I saw two coyotes on the hunt in the fields.  Two does came out.  And eventually, these two gobblers came right out in the field below the stand.

They were strutting and gobbling and I just took video with my camera.  Here's some examples.

Gobblers coming out

Strut 1

Strut 2

Strut 3

Leaving

I didn't see where they roosted but I thought I might as well check this spot out first thing in the morning.  So I did.

There was gobbling in the woods at first light.  At about 7:15, the gobbling got loud and they came out into the field from the atv trail on the other side.  I picked what looked like the larger of the two and whacked him at about 25 yards.  The other guy hung around for awhile - confused about what just happened,

I never called once.  Might have been the key - I didn't scare them away.

I got down and took a look.

After first inspection, I picked him up and walked him into the barn.

Hung him up and proceeded to get all the vital statistics.

Beard length.

Spur length.

I breasted him out.  I have never plucked a whole bird.  I'll have to try that some day. Breasting may be a bit wasteful.

Earlier in the week, Van and his helper Michael were out doing some chores like clearing the trails.  

He was also test driving the John Deere which has some mysterious loss of power malady.  The current suspicion is something electrical.

He troubleshot the rototiller which died on me last week.  It's pretty much a mess after hitting something hard like a big rock.

Here I am taking a look when it suddenly stopped working for me last week.

Meanwhile, spring is well advanced.  The apple trees are almost done blooming.

I found this wild apple tree amongst the redbuds and dogwoods.

The dogwoods are in their glory right now but they are dispersed in the understory.  Hard to photograph.

Here's a spot with redbuds past peak and dogwoods at peak.

The cameras were full once again with turkey activity.

There are deer around of course.

Compare the coats in the above and below photos.

Bobcat

Coyotes.

This was at home in Mason.  Daisy found a mallard nest in our garden pine straw and brought us this present.