Hunting Archery Duck Deer

The early bird catches … well, the early birdCommentary by Mike Roberts 5/22/05

An alarm clock waking up a person out of a sound sleep at an ungodly hour in the morning simply means it is time for spring turkey hunting again. It was 3:30 a.m. up in New York as I tried to shake myself out of bed and shut off the dang gobbling of my alarm clock. Most normal people have an alarm clock that either wakes them up to music or a gentle ding-a-ling sound, but not this old outdoors writer. Nah, I had to have an alarm clock that gobbled like a tom turkey because it was different. Well, we all make mistakes now and then.

After sleepily shutting off the infernal alarm clock, I headed downstairs to check and see what kind of weather I would be hunting turkey in. It was cloudy and cool with temperatures in the upper 30s but at least it wasn’t raining, at that moment anyway. By the time I headed up the hill to my hunting spot at 4:30 a.m. the rain was coming down steadily. It was the morning of May 1 in New York state and another spring turkey season had arrived.

Those of us that choose to hunt wild turkey in the spring must have a bit of masochist in us because of the way we punish our bodies morning after morning. Those of you who don’t hunt turkey might wonder what in the world are we doing up so early? It simply goes with the turf, sort of like the early bird getting the worm.

Once I am up and have that first cup of coffee, my turkey-hunting world seems to get brighter, even with the arrival of the rain. There is something magical about the turkey woods, even at an ungodly hour on a spring morning as you make your way to a favorite hunting spot. I like to be all settled in about a half an hour before dawn’s early light begins to break.

It is still dark as I reach my spot alongside a freshly plowed farm field. The air is refreshingly pungent with the smell of the fresh-turned earth that I hope will draw the turkeys. It’s getting light now, and the first woods critter to announce that they are up is a woodpecker, his hammering breaking the silence of the damp morning. His pecking noise does not go unnoticed, because I hear a tom turkey gobble down on the ridge below the farm field. As always, that booming gobble has gotten my adrenalin rushing.

He’s really into it now, and I hear some hens fly down in his direction. Also absent is the sound of other gobblers. Either there are none, or the one doing the gobbling is the “Boss” and the other males in the area are afraid to make a sound. In the mean time, that tom gobbled for a good 45 minutes nonstop.

I made a couple of calls and he answered them every time, but I could tell he expected the hen I was trying to imitate to come to him. After about an hour, I moved down to the other corner of the field, hoping that the old gobbler would figure I was the hen he had heard and had moved into his neighborhood to be closer to him. Forget about it. He went silent on me.

Then a strange thing happened. A shrill, tinkling, scream-like sound ripped over us and toms began to sound off everywhere around me. “What the heck is that?” I thought. I even figured it might be another hunter trying to make the toms “shock gobble” (this is done by using an owl hooter, crow call or other such call to shock a tom into gobbling. They work … sometimes).

I heard the scream again, only from a different direction, and then I saw the culprit. It was a goshawk floating over us on the air currents and every time it let out one of those piercing screams, all of the toms sounded off. In a way it helped me because I was able to locate two toms on the far side of the field. After they disappeared, I decided to go into the woods after them.

I set up and did some really hard, vigorous hen calls, like a hen deeply in need of some loving. I was a little disappointed when no answering gobble came back tome, but I decided that I was going to hold my ground for a while. After all, I did see the two gobblers and they weren’t with hens. I was there for about 20 minutes and was contemplating moving again when I happened to look to my left. There in all his glory, was a tom turkey about 40 yards out. He had come in silent, never gobbling once.

He still hadn’t seen my camouflaged hulk of a body nestled against a huge maple tree as he scanned the area looking for the hens that were making all the come-hither calls. In fact there were two toms, the other was a lesser male (Jake) about another 20 yards out. Luck was with me, and the next thing you know I was putting a New York tag on my first turkey of the new season, all thanks to the screaming call of a goshawk. Live and learn.

Then it was back to Connecticut to try my hand at putting a tag on a Connecticut turkey. I should mention that hunters I have talked to in both New York and Connecticut have remarked on the silence of the toms this year and the fact that most of them are still actively breeding hens. One of my hunting buddies, Pete Picone said, “You could call it ‘The silent spring.’”

However, in Connecticut and other states in the northeast they have what is called A Youth Hunting Day. Pete used that opportunity to take his son, Anthony, out turkey hunting and Anthony was successful. He put his tag on a really nice turkey that his dad Pete called in.

My first morning was greeted with high expectations as I arrived at my hunting spot. However, as I made silently made my way towards the spot I wanted to hunt I saw the silhouette of a hen turkey right over the place I wanted to sit in. I could see that she was alert, so I backed off and sat down in a totally different spot than the one I had originally planned to sit in. Hindsight being just that, if I had to do it again I think I would have made the hen fly down and sit in that spot.

Anyway, a gobbler sounded off just below the spot I had originally wanted and I as I watched at least a dozen hens flew down to meet the forest monarch for some turkey-style loving. As you might have guessed, the hens and the big tom moved right through where I should have been set up. With all of the hens he could want with him, that old tom would not even answer any of my calling efforts.

The following morning I picked the same area again, only to hear the tom gobble once at least 200 hundred yards away from where I was set up and since he was with a flock of hens he only called once and that was it.

For me, every morning I am able to get out into our beautiful outdoor world is simply great. I do not have to be successful to make it great, simply the fact that I am there is all I need to make my outdoor world complete.

I can also count on Mother Nature showing me something different whenever I am out there, too. One of my turkey hunting mornings did just that. I had located in another part of the property I was hunting and had decided to use a couple of hen decoys in my attempt to attract a tom turkey. I set the decoys up on the edge of a field and sat with my back against a tree back in the woods a bit. Two Canada geese came in honking and landed about 80 yards away from the decoys. When they spotted the decoys they came waddling over honking at them all of the way. I never thought that the sound of a Canada goose would irritate me, but these two and their loud-mouthed babbling had accomplished that feat. They came right up to the decoys as if they were trying to flush them out of the field.

Finally, I had enough and stood up, making them fly off, and I would wonder what in the heck had just happened. Well folks, it’s still turkey season so I’m still torturing myself with those early morning wake ups, but being me, I would not have it any other way.

St. Jude Archery Shoot: Millstream Hunting Preserve will present its first St. Jude 3-D Archery Shoot June 5. Register to shoot 7 a.m. to noon. This is a new 3-D course featuring 30 McKenzie targets, located in Columbiaon Route 66. Breakfast and lunch will be available for the shoot. For more information, call Don Favry at (860) 295-9974 or Mike Roberts at (203) 634-3520.

See ya’ and God Bless America and keep us forever free!

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