The archers, kids and disabled get a little bit of a head start to spring turkey season, today is the first weekend day of the regular season (Wednesday is traditional opener). I was in place with lots of time to spare this morning, setting up four decoys on the wooded edge of a hay field. The wooded watercourse back to the east is the headwaters of the Walnut River. Around 45 minutes before sunrise the first gobbles rang out....glad I was there on time as was close enough that I would have been busted walking in to the setup if it was lighter.http://s1375.photobucket.com/user/drmarkes1/media/021_zps4e07378d.jpg.html?sort=2&o=5
The field like many a Kansas Flint Hills field is tricky to the eyes. When you are standing up, it is possible to see the opposite edge of the field. Because the field has a crown to it, once you sit down along an edge, the opposite edge disappears from view. Running through the field are little troughs and valleys. Suddenly deer and turkeys will appear or disappear from view, almost as if Mr Scott and the Star Trek crew were playing with the transporter.
I saw one bird pitch out of the trees and land as if he were headed in, on a rope. I saw him spread his wings to stop his forward momentum, and then Mr Scott made him disappear. Just as well, as I have never once had the "traditional" flydown/boom scenario seen on countless Primos videos. Instead, I was witness to all of creation waking up, and letting the world know that they had made it through another night. Geese, mallards, teal, crows, quail, pheasants, various small birds and turkey noises drifted along with the freshening sourthern breeze.
I can neither confirm nor deny that at any time while seated in the field edge under the branches of an Eastern Red Cedar that my eyelids ever failed to go back up as fast as they came down......but then I caught movement on the far edge of the hay field. Full strut tom turkey, headed towards the woodlot to my right. Adrenaline rush over, my eyes were once again getting just a tad heavy. Once again, across the field I see a bird. Binoculars confirm a hen. I call, she stretches her neck as tall as she can trying to see over the crown of the field. She is standing still for a long time, and then begins to head over to join my group of decoys. http://s1375.photobucket.com/user/drmarkes1/media/028_zps114d8a9a.jpg.html?sort=2&o=12
Moving along while picking at this and that in the field, she is headed my direction, just a little to my left as she follows a natural contour in the field. Now within shotgun range I watch her as she slows down walking and picks up the pace of feeding. Peripheral vision catches a movement in the middle of the hay field, hello Mr BigBoy. Fan fully deployed, wing tips dragging along, he has surprised me courtesy of the Enterprise crew. Already halfway across the field, he is in full show off mode.http://s1375.photobucket.com/user/drmarkes1/media/031_zps13b4abe7.jpg.html?sort=2&o=14
]The live hen yelps, he answers with a double gobble. A fake hen yelps, he sort of gobbles......note to self, practice your mouth call more!!! He continues along the pathway she just took to get to my side of the field. The cedar tree I am camped out behind is great camouflage for me, but if he continues along to where she is standing, I will almost have no shot. I call again, he puffs out even more, stops and does a little dance for us. Bright white, and yet blue head, on-fire neck color, and the sun dances off his feathers gold, green, black, orange hues of great beauty.http://s1375.photobucket.com/user/drmarkes1/media/035_zps3a502b08.jpg.html?sort=2&o=17
He is just in range. I have put the camera down, afraid that I will make too much movement or noise and blow this opportunity. I barely breath on the diaphragm and he gobbles again. Shifting to his left, and moving now not on a straight track of the object of his affection, he seems to think that his best move is to go where there are more hens than the one he has been following. I am silently willing him to continue towards the decoys, and when he clears the last tips of the cedar branch I release the safety, and line him up for the final dance.
The field like many a Kansas Flint Hills field is tricky to the eyes. When you are standing up, it is possible to see the opposite edge of the field. Because the field has a crown to it, once you sit down along an edge, the opposite edge disappears from view. Running through the field are little troughs and valleys. Suddenly deer and turkeys will appear or disappear from view, almost as if Mr Scott and the Star Trek crew were playing with the transporter.
I saw one bird pitch out of the trees and land as if he were headed in, on a rope. I saw him spread his wings to stop his forward momentum, and then Mr Scott made him disappear. Just as well, as I have never once had the "traditional" flydown/boom scenario seen on countless Primos videos. Instead, I was witness to all of creation waking up, and letting the world know that they had made it through another night. Geese, mallards, teal, crows, quail, pheasants, various small birds and turkey noises drifted along with the freshening sourthern breeze.
I can neither confirm nor deny that at any time while seated in the field edge under the branches of an Eastern Red Cedar that my eyelids ever failed to go back up as fast as they came down......but then I caught movement on the far edge of the hay field. Full strut tom turkey, headed towards the woodlot to my right. Adrenaline rush over, my eyes were once again getting just a tad heavy. Once again, across the field I see a bird. Binoculars confirm a hen. I call, she stretches her neck as tall as she can trying to see over the crown of the field. She is standing still for a long time, and then begins to head over to join my group of decoys. http://s1375.photobucket.com/user/drmarkes1/media/028_zps114d8a9a.jpg.html?sort=2&o=12
Moving along while picking at this and that in the field, she is headed my direction, just a little to my left as she follows a natural contour in the field. Now within shotgun range I watch her as she slows down walking and picks up the pace of feeding. Peripheral vision catches a movement in the middle of the hay field, hello Mr BigBoy. Fan fully deployed, wing tips dragging along, he has surprised me courtesy of the Enterprise crew. Already halfway across the field, he is in full show off mode.http://s1375.photobucket.com/user/drmarkes1/media/031_zps13b4abe7.jpg.html?sort=2&o=14
]The live hen yelps, he answers with a double gobble. A fake hen yelps, he sort of gobbles......note to self, practice your mouth call more!!! He continues along the pathway she just took to get to my side of the field. The cedar tree I am camped out behind is great camouflage for me, but if he continues along to where she is standing, I will almost have no shot. I call again, he puffs out even more, stops and does a little dance for us. Bright white, and yet blue head, on-fire neck color, and the sun dances off his feathers gold, green, black, orange hues of great beauty.http://s1375.photobucket.com/user/drmarkes1/media/035_zps3a502b08.jpg.html?sort=2&o=17
He is just in range. I have put the camera down, afraid that I will make too much movement or noise and blow this opportunity. I barely breath on the diaphragm and he gobbles again. Shifting to his left, and moving now not on a straight track of the object of his affection, he seems to think that his best move is to go where there are more hens than the one he has been following. I am silently willing him to continue towards the decoys, and when he clears the last tips of the cedar branch I release the safety, and line him up for the final dance.
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