Turkey

Ah, spring turkey season...nothing like it.  It seems that Mother Nature likes to time her first heavy rains of the year with the spring season opener.  We typically find ourselves dodging flood waters right as the season rolls around, but we still manage to scratch a few birds off the property every year.  As you can see in the pictures below, I have even had to retrieve a downed bird out of a rising river.

We have some high turkey numbers in the area, although we have seen a noticeable decline the past few years.  We have been hit with some heavy flooding each of the last three years while the hens are nesting...and then hit again after the waters recede while they are renesting.  There is higher ground nearby where they can find shelter, but the hatches have been less than ideal due to frequent flooding.  I was encouraged this fall however by seeing some good sized flocks from the deer stand.

The first picture below is the first time I took my wife, Jenny, hunting with me.  It was a textbook hunt I'll never forget.  He game in gobbling and strutting and put a hurting on B-Mobile before I put some Hevi-13 through his head.  As you can see, the combination of the morning dew and the death flop made for a wet bird.  Heck, it seems that every other turkey we kill finds some water to flop around in before we're able to retrieve it...almost as if they're getting the last laugh by not letting us get those textbook fanned out pictures.

See below for pictures from years past.  Hopefully I'll have some new ones to post up and stories to tell a few months from now...