I had a nice change this Easter morning: a turkey gobbling! The cold weather has slowed them down in my area, but this bird sure was singing this morning!
He flew down on the other side of the patch and didn't want to cross it to meet me on the other side, in the woods. I found out why, when I saw him standing on a mound out there at about 100 yards or so. I thought for sure he was coming right to me, when a coyote came trotting about 10 feet in front of the short mound. Something was blocking them from seeing each other, and both had the
expression when they met eyes. The 'yote vanished like a ninja, and my gobbler jumped a few feet in the air with a putt-cackle. I grabbed my box and started making whatever crazy turkey noises I could muster (sounded like a putt-cluck, followed by a 3-note yelp). To my surprise, he calmed down and stood around. I felt I needed to get call-heavy, so I yelped again and sure enough he gobbled.
However, he began to wander off, and I felt the coyote situation spoiled the day. The next thing I know he gobbles again, but this time in the woods on my side of the patch. The problem was then a huge vine, which I couldn't crawl around. It turned out to be a nice gun rest (gun: on top of the vine/left hand: under the vine, on front forearm/right hand: under and behind the vine). The gun did tap my forehead, but after a nice 3-hour battle and some solid gobbling, the Easter Turkey went down at 9:30 this morning!
